Promise You Forever
by The TRUE Angel of Music
Summary: Convinced she shall never grow up, a girl calls out for a fantasy told to her from a friend in the hopes that he will take her away and promise her forever.
1. Chapter 1

_**So begins my story. I do not own any of the characters from Peter Pan. Sorry if this may not follow along with the usual depiction of Peter Pan. This story was intended for a friend, but she never ended up reading it because she didn't have the time so I thought I would post it here. Hope you all enjoy. **_

_**Chapter 1. **_

Emerald globes sparkled and danced in the illumination of the night sky as they filled with mischief. His duplicitous movements through the underbrush and thick, knee-high weeds fascinated and appealed to me at the same time as I followed behind clumsily stumbling with every step.

A joyful melody filled the fields as his whistling merged with my laughter, making a song that was pleasing to the ears and made my spirits dance in a way I felt they would lift me up to roam amongst the stars. Not even the darkness could extinguish the light on his face and his glowing smile. Tossing back a head of midnight curls, he ran over to me as if floating across the grass, and grabbed my hand. I grinned at the feel of his hands, as soft and gentle as my own.

"However does your hands deter the callousness that plagues those who climb trees and perform arduous work?"

"All have their vanities," he shrugged and proceeded to sprint, dragging me along with arms that seemed as frail as my own yet possessed an inward strength much unlike any brawny lad I have come to meet. "We are almost there."

"Oh… we are not going to the woods, are we?" my eyes went wide at the mass of trees we approached and the blackness that awaited us.

"You aren't scared of some woods, are you?" the childish tone I had previously heard came back as if he were a five-year-old teasing another haughtily. "Ah… come on. It ain't like the trees are gonna bite ya or something."

"Ah, but it is rather dark and without an ounce of light to guide us, and how the dark frightens me so!" my own childish ails came and made our fraternizing appeared much like that between two young children deciding to steal the desserts before their suppertime. "You would not make me go. You _can't!_ How dreadful! How utterly _dreadful_!"

"You girls and your fears," he held his head high. "I would not have half so much bother if I had decided to take a fellow along. I am sure that Matthew and Nicholas would have rather liked to be here. They would have entered the woods."

"If you were to invite my brother and neighbor, I should never talk to you again, and you know it!"

"But, remember, it was _you _who talked to me first. I could be off mighty fine without the likes of you. What use do I have of a silly girl?"

"And a silly girl I shall remain, but I shall be reasonable where you are not, and take your words of folly in as grown-up a fashion as I can muster. For one of us should be the mature one in this situation."

"Good that it be you, then." he wrinkled his nose at the thought of him being the mature one. "Since I never plan to grow up."

"Indeed, as you often remind us all." I sighed. "But how much fun it would be if you did. Then I wouldn't worry half so much being cross with you and having a jolly good time every now and then like normal acquaintances would. It is only the fact that I know that soon enough you will leave me as you do all of us that keeps me being sensible and not allowing my temper to interfere with our fun."

"That be it only since no one wishes to spend _all_ their time with me."

"But fun and games can only last so long."

"I forget you are being mature," he stuck out his tongue. "I rather like being unreasonable and childish and not giving into such trifles that might fascinate you _older_ folk, but I find it all a _bore_."

"I know not how I can _ever_ talk sense into that nonsensical head of yours," I giggled and found my maternal voice disappearing as I gave into the juvenile ambiance about me. "Why, you are the youngest of us all, though you be the oldest! However do you expect me to truly get close to you when you try so hard to maintain an infantile demeanor that is impossible to talk pragmatically with? How I want to get to know you, for I have heard such _stories. _Stories that I never could have imagined, and that every book denies me. Stories that delight and enlighten the soul, bringing back the child in all of us. That is why I called out to you, Peter… it is why I stay with you now and why I trust you. Can you repudiate me without explaining yourself?" my voice grew softer. "What can I do to keep you?"

"Promise me forever," his face grew solemn as he held out one hand to me, as the other directed my attention towards the forest. "Will you join me on the fun?"

"Oh, I do not think I could promise _that_, but I can promise you this night."

"So I guess I have to settle with that," he grabbed my hand and we began to race into the depths of the woods. "Prepare yourself because this begins your adventures with the notorious Peter Pan!"


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2.**_

_"Margaret?" Mother's voice rang through the small house as gaily and jovial as any woman completely content and satisfied with the blessings bestowed upon her life. "Margaret Anita Maurice!"_

"Why call you so early?" I trumpeted, rubbing my eyes and scratching the mess of dark tangles atop my head. "You know well I am not half in my sanity at this hour of the day."

_"Suppose you got up earlier to help out the house more?" Jeanette suggested. "Perhaps then you should understand the responsibilities and duties that await you?"_

_"That is only if I am willing to accept them," I grumbled at my older sister, the perfect model of the ideal housewife, waking up at the crack of dawn to kiss all good morning and serve breakfast dressed as if everyday were a celebration. "Rummaging about the house cleaning and being prim and proper all the time might seem quite agreeable to some, but to me, I would rather be out in the fields exploring and having a jolly good time."_

_"Wendy was not half as difficult."_

_"God forbid you mention her name to me. You cannot compare me to that twit, who allowed herself to be tamed with the first stroke of the whip. I am not as feeble and easy to break."_

_"That is only because Wendy is being sensible," Jeanette's hands found their way to her hips in a saucy habit she had yet to be rid of. "She realizes her place as a woman, and is willing to accept it. In due time, dear Margaret, you shall as well."_

_"How my name plagues me so!" I groaned. "Far too proper, even if I am to someday be so. It seems as a name ready to wash dishes until they shine back with all the luster of the world and I know I will have not a mite of concern as to the condition of such ridiculous fancies."_

_"It was your grandmother's name, dear, and a lovely name it is." Mother kissed my forehead tenderly before refilling the cup of cream for my sake. "Now please eat your breakfast and be done hastily, for we will soon be having callers, particularly Miss Wendy herself, and I would much like to show all the blessings bestowed upon me in my children."_

_"And I shall make Margaret presentable," Jeanette stepped in. "First, I shall do something to that hair. Such a gorgeous glow about it, and with tints of auburn within its dark color. It would be becoming to curl it, rather than braid it into the same childish plates you constantly have them in. And I shall have you wear a lovely cream silk to bring out the light hues in your chocolate eyes, so it does not appear so black. How fun it shall be! Just like dressing up a doll."_

_"Only you gave up such **childish **joys long ago." I pouted at my reflection in the cup of cream and proceeded on with my eating. "If only Wendy had not grown up quite so quickly, I might have anticipated her arrival. However, it seems as if I am dressing much rather for a group of prissy old ladies who have nothing better to do than gossip and sip their teas with their nose against the ceilings. It's a surprise they are not bleeding from such high altitudes."_

_"Please stop your boyish rambling," Jeanette scolded. "Sit up straight right now… and that is **far** too much cream for a meal and will ruin your figure. I cannot have you acting like such a vixen, with you constantly throwing back your head in boisterous laughter and doing what pleases you that instant no matter how lackadaisical it may be. You have such lovely speech and a fine vocabulary, but it is hidden behind all your talk of nonsense. Why fight to be a child when you know that everyone grows up eventually, love?"_

_"Why indeed." _

The mention of his name brought a smile to my lips until Peter had broken the silence by letting out a loud crow that made numerous creatures stir in their slumber. Had his laughter not followed, I would have given in to the fear that surrounded me and let out a cry of horror at how the cold night air had managed to become thick and suffocating.

"Please tell me we draw nearer," my grip on him tightened. "I can feel the night watching us. I cannot stand it! Protect me, Peter."

"I'll never understand you girls," Peter grumbled as he pulled his hand away. "You get the jitters over the silliest things."

"The audacity to say that to me!" I opened my mouth wide as I stopped walking. "I care not if you would wish to remain a child all your day, but even children know when to be respectable. Any young lad would know they are assist a lady when time calls upon it."

"And I suppose I shall, if I ever am in presence of a lady."

"You make it near impossible to bear being with you!" I stomped my foot. "If you treated Wendy as you do me, I blame her not for deciding to grow up. For if my fate is to be an insensitive fool for the rest of eternity, then I would rather deal with the boredom of teatime and titter tatter for even that comes to an end all in all."

"Hush up, or they shall hear you!" Peter hissed, jumping behind a tree and swinging his body upon a branch with as much skill and agility as a forest elf.

"What reason have I to hide? You certainly did a fine job of making our presence know when you began crowing like a lunatic only moments ago."

"Michael and Nicholas are coming," Peter put a finger to his lips and grinned mischievously. "They have not been in my domain for years. I shall give them a fright so they have known what they are missing."

"Lord almighty, be that a girl!" Michael's eyes went wide when he saw me standing amongst the trees, clad in my nightshirt with my eyes still aflame from Peter's effrontery. "Nick! You must come and see who decided to be owl food for the night!"

"Margaret?" Nicholas's eyebrows, as light as sunshine as they may be, went up as he approached me. "What are you doing out? If your mum found out… if Jeanette found out. Why, you would be folding handkerchiefs for the rest of your life!"

"As if I am the only one out tonight," I crossed my arms. "I would like to see you explain how you came to find me in the woods at the middle of the night. It is not as if you live so close as to see my sneak through the front door, and if you had any sense, you would realize I would never risk going down the stairs and waking Jeanette up to hear a lecture of why I should be sleeping and maintaining the youth I have."

"Gee, Margaret… you are getting mighty old!" Michael exclaimed with all of the innocence a twelve-year-old could possible possess. "I had thought I nearly caught up to you in height, but then you go and sprout up even more."

"Give it time, Michael, and you will be walking amongst the clouds." I smiled, surprised at how I could somehow find mother's maternal tone in my own. "I remember not long ago you were staring at my waistband. Now you are nearly not so small."

"It isn't that he's small, but rather you too big." Nicholas teased.

"Aww… but Margaret is mighty grown-up." Michael said as he looked up into my face. "You be getting prettier by the day. Wendy thinks so too."

"Cuffaw! Cuffaw!" Peter jumped from where he was standing and landing on all fours like a cat.

"Peter!" Michael ran towards him in excitement. "Golly, I haven't seen you in sooo long! I had thought you left us behind."

"I never leave anyone behind," Peter stood up and looked at him grudgingly. "How is John?"

"He is courting Patricia McKenzie and going off to college," Michael pouted. "He doesn't have time to play anymore."

"Grown-ups never do," Peter frowned. "I expected better. He seemed like the smarter of the bunch. And Wendy?"

"Trying to fight away all of her suitors and callers," Michael replied as if he was constantly giving such an answer to someone. "She has a beau for every day of the week."

"How about you, Michael? Are you growing up too?"

"Yes, but it seems everyone else grew much faster than I. Sometimes it seems I am getting younger while everyone else gets even older."

"Everyone has to grow up someday," Nicholas stepped in, resting a hand on Michael's shoulder.

"Only if they wish to," Peter looked at Nicholas with pure loathing. "I don't even have to ask. I can smell the old that lingers on your body."

"You talk like growing up is a disease and a curse." Nicholas turned to me. "Margaret. Come, and let us go back before your mother wakes to find her daughter missing in the night. What ludicrous, to think getting older be the worst thing in the world."

"I do not wish to leave quite yet," my eyes went to Peter, who looked up and locked his emerald ones with my chocolate ones. "You promised me adventures, Peter."

"You do not mean to go off with this… _boy_… do you?" Nicholas did not attempt to hide his disapproval. "He is bound to get you in more tomfoolery than either one of you can handle."

"I have waited long enough for my own story," I went to Peter's side and grabbed his hand. "Wendy got her turn of the fun, and I intend to get mine. Perhaps childish games is just the thing I need in my life."

"Annie, it is more fun than you can imagine!" Peter's passive face broke into a blissful grin. "No work and all play! Not a worry in the world!"

"Then I shall come with you," Nicholas ordered. "I cannot leave you with him, Margaret. I cannot face your dear mother knowing you are off gallivanting with the likes of Peter Pan."

"Be glad you never called to me in the night, for I would have left you in the woods for you to mend for yourself." Peter retorted immaturely.

"No doubt I would be safer than if I allowed my fate to rest in your hands."

"Can I come?" Michael asked. "Oh Peter, I have not been on an adventure with you for so long, and how I often wish I could!"

"I can't turn away a friend," Peter smiled at Michael. "And perhaps you could save me the bother of explaining about Hook to our fellow swashbucklers."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

_How Wendy Darling appeared, flushing her long eyelashes and twirling her blonde curls in the most coy manner when I had answered the door. Dressed in a revealing satin gown, it was surprising to know she was only two years older than my fifteen years. _

_"Margaret," Wendy bent in to give me a sisterly kiss, but I moved away, detesting such conduct as asinine. "You are the semblance of beauty, I may declare. How lovely you look in that crème! Did Jeanette dress you?"_

_"No, of course not. Everyone knows of my desire to dress like a peacock and wave about my feathers outlandishly."_

_"How I wish you would grow up a bit more, Margaret. You are growing into such a fine, cultivated lady as it is, yet you persist in staying a child and being treated as so."_

_"That is only because I wish not to grow up."_

_"Why might you wish that?"_

_"Because I do not want to live such a life as prancing about daintily and putting on airs. There is no fun in being an adult. It seems all dull with no droll occurrences to make it all worthwhile."_

_"That is because you do not give yourself a chance."_

_"Why would I? So you all might manipulate me into thinking this is what I want when you all know it is far from it?"_

_"I know not why you act so hard and aloof when I only wish to grow closer to you."_

_"How can you, when you cannot even accept who I am?"_

_"You talk as if you are accepting me for who I am."_

_"Well, at least we both realize we have no intention to do **that**." I remarked sardonically._

_"Alright, I apologize for being so pushy." Wendy bowed her head. "Come, and let us walk. I shall discuss anything that might possibly interest you. If only this allows me the opportunity to get to know Margaret Anita Maurice a bit better."_

_"Do you enjoy being an adult?"_

_"Being older has its joys but it does have its trials and tribulations as well." Wendy smiled as if treasuring a memory sweet to her. "Childhood has so many fun memories, it was hard to imagine doing anything besides running about and having a good time. But what is the use of having fun all of the time? Soon it, too, loses its splendor and then you are left with nothing but eternity. I find it much more delightful to indulge myself in a bit of work and adversities and then reward myself in due time. Then my fun never loses its grandeur."_

_"But why give it up? Why suddenly change yourself and give in to such things that you have not a mite of desire to ever do?" _

_"Because forever is a mighty long time to stay the same," Wendy twirled her parasol that shielded her white skin from the sun. "It would be wonderful to spend forever with someone dear to you and not have a worry in the world, but the truth of the matter is, forever is too long of a time for me to promise anything.'_

_"Don't you wish you marry someday?"_

_"Of course. It is my duty as a woman to settle down with a man who will provide for me."_

_"But when you give yourself in marriage, is that not the same thing as promising forever to the person?"_

_"Indeed." Wendy stopped walking and stared at me. "When you decide to marry, it shall be because you love one another and are willing to accept change and whatever change might occur between the two of you. You cannot expect to be married to the same person after ten years. Or twenty. Or thirty." _

"Whatever possessed you to go out, Margaret?" Nicholas hissed angrily once we had proceeded on with Peter leading as he conversed with Michael. "You cannot trust him. You do not know him."

"I know enough of him to want to go," I turned to Nicholas. "I am tired of the humdrum of my life. Having Jeanette pimp and polish me till I ache with all of her scrubbing and what-have-you… that is not for me, Nicholas, and you know it. I grew up with you. You know how I am like."

"And I had prayed everyday that perhaps your interests might change," Nicholas frowned. "Unfortunately, they haven't."

"As if you have change much since I've known you," I scoffed. "Still the same lad who carps to me constantly about me never wanting to change and grow up!"

"Do you still think me a lad!" Nicholas grabbed my wrists. "Come and look about you, Margaret. I am far from the little boy who used to speak of growing up and leaving the farm. My dreams have change. I have had to give in to the reality that surrounds me. Do you see the same boy staring at you now?"

"Nick…" my voice faltered as tears filled my eyes.

His blonde hair was ruffled from his sudden swift movements, and his blue eyes filled with such reality that it was as if I were looking into an old soul that had long since forgotten of the joys of life. His face, once round with his baby fat, was lean and masculine, and I began to wonder when this change had occurred. He _had _grown taller- much taller- and his body that used to have its childish clumsiness was now muscular and built for working along the fields. The hands that grasped me tightly were rough and weatherworn, much unlike the satin skin of my own that was still accustomed to clapping and picking flowers during the long summer days he spent working under the scorching sun.

"Do I need to watch and make sure you two don't do anything fishy now?" Peter inquired teasingly. "I forget that I am amongst more _mature_ folk, who would just as easily give in to older desires rather than their younger."

"Do we draw nearer to Neverland?"

"Why, Annie, we are already there." Peter pulled me from Nicholas's grasp and led me to his sanctuary.

"Oh Peter!" I gaped at the scene before me.

Neverland was a fairyland full of light and the melody of youth that poured down upon us like rain. In the air, the flickering lights of the fairies mirrored the bliss I felt that made it seem as if my joy would lift me up to fly amongst them. Holding out my hands, I felt the magic floating in the air and twirled around, taking in the greenness and fantasies that enveloped me in this world of wonder.

"Peter… it is magnificent." I turned to him as he stood staring at me with a crooked half smile and his eyes fixed on me in a fashion that would have Jeanette exclaiming. "Nothing can possibly be better than this, do you think?"

"Annie, this is only the beginning." he drew closer to me, and soon we were a few inches away, the tops of our noses touching. His hands grabbed mine and he leaned forward as his lips tickled my ears in a whisper. "Wait till I teach you how to fly."

Suddenly my world was a mixture of bright lights as the glowing fairies surrounded us, flickering and gleaming about us like a view enclosing us in together. Staring into his smiling face, filled with neither mischief, craft, nor childishness, I grinned and was so lost in him that I did not notice when we were slowly lifted off of the ground. Floating amongst the enchantment around us, when I did stir, I immediately looked down and gasped at how high we were. Drawing nearer to Peter and wrapping me arms around him, clinging to his body with all my might, I heard him chuckle, much unlike his usual juvenile guffaws and giggles.

"You enjoying the view up here?" he asked.

"Until I looked down," I smiled meekly. "I am sorry, but I have a fear of heights as well."

"I do not think I shall ever understand you girls," Peter shook his head, and I looked at how each movement of his hair made his curls bounce about. "Too many so-called fears to hold you down."

"As if you can control your fears."

"Certainly you can," Peter raised his eyebrows in a way that made me laugh. "Your fears are only excuses to prevent you from doing something."

"Oh really?'

"Yes," Peter grinned at me. "Really."

"Do you think we should go and make sure Michael and Nicholas are enjoying themselves?" I questioned, despite the fact I did not want to leave from his arms that held me gently. I closed my eyes and my grip on him tightened as Peter responded by pulling me nearer. "I wish I could stay here forever."


	4. Chapter 4

A.N.: Thanks to all the reviewers. You all are great! Much thanks for your feedback. It is the best sensation to know that people are enjoying what you write, and the thought that there are some who find delight in something that I love doing makes this all worthwhile.

Chapter 4.

_"I remember the first time Peter taught me to fly," Wendy's eyes went to the woods and she smiled. "I felt like I could do anything after that. He had made me feel like I could simply fly up into heaven if I well pleased. Back then I was willing to try anything, and I used to surprise him with how I had no fear upon my face when I was lifted off of the group and into the sky._

_"My fear did not come until Peter decided to teach Michael and John," Wendy let out a soft laugh. "How I felt like mother, yelling at Peter to be careful so as not to hurt them both. Peter kept telling me to not bother, yet I kept persisting and nearly fainted when I watched Michael and John roaming about like a bird, soaring against the night sky. I thought I would near die of horror."_

_"What did you do after he taught you to fly?" I asked, Wendy's story seeming much more interesting than the monotonous small-talk that was expected to pass between us. _

_"Why, we flew." Wendy blushed. "I don't know how to explain it. We roamed Neverland like no one else could and explored every little corner of it. Peter introduced me to the Mermaids and the Indians, and how jealous I used to be when I would see how all of the girls stared at him. That was when I realized that I was not a child anymore. The more I looked at him, the more I saw him as a person I could be more than a friend with. Yet, no matter how much my own feelings about him were, he was still Peter Pan. He could never look at me any other way but as a playmate, or a fellow kid who just did not want to grow up. _

_"Try as I might to catch his attention, to draw his attention my way in any way besides the friendly matter he looked at me, he was quite content with us being playmates. I would come to him in the night more dressed up than I would during the day, or he would find me doing my hair with ribbons and comment that girls were the weirdest creatures he had ever met but not once did he compliment me. He could not see past the fun we shared and see the girl that wanted to spend the rest of her life with him…"_

_"Wendy…" I saw the troubled look on her face as a poignant mask came upon her face. "What happened? Nothing horrid, I hope?" _

_" Slowly but surely I forgot things," Wendy lowered her gaze. "I thought perhaps it was nothing serious. That perhaps I was just making room in my head for more wondrous things and adventures, but when I forgot how to fly… I… I knew things were changing. Peter would try to take me to Neverland, but I could not find it. When he stopped visiting me, I would wander the woods all night and come back covered in mud and twigs and having my mother on the urge of sending me to an institution, but I could only sob in her arms and say I could not find what I was looking for. I was convinced that everything was only a dream, but when my mother told me she was hiring Jeanette as governess to turn me into the lady I should already be, Peter visited me."_

_"Did you realize everything was real then?"_

_"Of course," Wendy looked up at me now, tears in her eyes, and locked my gaze. "He offered me everything, Margaret. Peter promised me forever, if only I would not grow up and stay to play with him. When I told him I must grow up but I wanted to be with him yet, he only jeered as if I had insulted him, saying that if I wanted to grow up and get old and die then that was fine with him. He said he would never teach me to fly again and would never see me again. Then, I let him go." _

_"You let him go? Not another word said?"_

_"I did not know what to say," Wendy confessed. "How I wanted to be with him, Margaret. Why… I loved him so, but Peter… he could not… would not… ever love me. I suppose he might for playing and poking fun with, but never in the way I wished him to."_

_"But you loved him!" I gasped. "Why would you let him go?"_

_"Yes, I did love Peter." Wendy looked down at her hands. "He was the boy who visited me and took me on adventures I could never dream. But I had to let him go. I had chosen my destiny, and I planned to grow up. Peter had chosen never to. I could not go all of my life bound to a boy."_

_"Why would Peter not want to grow up?" I questioned, enthralled in her story. _

_"I do not know," Wendy smiled. "Now, that is enough talk of my Peter Pan for the moment. Lord only knows how much scolding I would receive from Jeanette if she knew I had spent this whole time telling you my tales of a childhood fantasy."_

_"Do you think this… Peter Pan… is still out there right now?" _

_"Oh yes, I believe Peter is still out there playing as we speak with his new playmates." Wendy took one last glance at the woods before continuing. "Why, he has an eternity of playtime and I am sure he must have a new fellow to share, if only a few moments, with him."_

"Did you enjoy our performance there?" Peter asked when we were safe on the ground. "A royal time, I assure you all."

"I wish I could fly, Peter." Michael said. "I have not flown in so long."

"You don't mean to say you've forgotten, Michael?"

"You stopped coming to visit us so long ago, Peter, I can't help forgetting."

"I'll leave you to Tink." Peter remarked to Michael before turning to me. "Would you like to explore more?"

"Yes, what a place Neverland is." I looked over at Nicholas, who was resting against a tree and smiling smugly. "Would you like to join us, Nicholas?"

"I am rather content sitting here, thank you." Nicholas responded. "This Neverland is indeed a pleasant place."

"What a twit!" Peter laughed. "A whole world at his feet and he would take it lying down and resting! What a bore!"

"Nicholas is the practical one," I answered. "He would choose sitting down in a chair while we all run about any day."

"I say he's a twit."

"Say what you want, but my opinion shall not change on account of it."

"Why did you call for me?" Peter demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"You called for me," Peter's face grew angry. "You wanted me there. You asked for an adventure. What made you do it?"

"I wanted to meet you," I answered simply. "Wendy had told me about you and I wanted to have a story like that to share. I wanted to experience what Wendy felt. Perhaps this bit of adventure is what I need."

"What did Wendy tell you?"

"She said you taught her and her brothers to fly," I said seriously. "And that you took them on adventures, introducing them into the Indians and Mermaids."

"…and Hook."

"Wendy didn't mention Hook."

"Just like her," Peter shook his head. "That was because I saved her life that night. Hook had captured her and my lost boys, ready to make them walk the plank if they didn't join him. I, of course, came to their rescue, and the ungrateful brat turns me away and says she would rather grow up into a boring old woman rather than having fun forever."

"Wendy wanted to grow up," I told him. "There comes a time in everyone's life when they accept that it must happen, and then it's not half so bad."

"I won't accept it!" Peter yelled. "I am _never _going to grow up! Never!"

"Peter…"

"Don't try to make me feel better. There isn't anything you can do. Wendy isn't going to come back. She can't. She's forgotten everything. She went and grew up. But I never will. I will not leave Neverland!"

"You aren't leaving us, are ya Peter?"

Looking up, I saw a dozen heads looking down at us from a tree house atop the huge trees. Youthful faces, much younger than Peter, grinned sheepishly at me, and when Peter laughed his reply and we flew up, the tension from our conversation rapidly disappearing until only my anticipation to meet Peter's lost boys remained.

"This is Annie," Peter introduced, crossing his arms.

"Margaret Anita Maurice," I corrected. "But Annie is just as fine, thank you."

"Are you going to be our new mother, Annie?" a small freckled boy asked.

"Yes, will you tell us stories like Wendy did?" another kid hoped with wide eyes.

"She's much prettier than Wendy was," a skinny lad with hair that seemed to consume his head remarked.

"Annie, these are my lost boys." Peter said proudly.

"And you guys enjoy Neverland?"

"Yes, yes!" they piped.

"So much fun!"

"No more chores!"

"Don't matter if my hair is all messed up and tangled!"

"We can play all day!"

"Tink is fun to tease!"

"How about flying?" I giggled. "None of you enjoy that?"

"Ooooh…" the boys looked at Peter, who had rested in a hammock with a leg hanging off, swinging the leg back and forth as he whistled.

"Peter only teaches his favorites how to fly," the freckled boy explained.

"Only the special ones!" the boys said in unison.

"So you suppose I'm special?" I asked, blushing at the thought.

"Yes! Why do ya think he taught Wendy how to fly? And she was a _girl_!"

"Oh, so of course Peter cannot teach _girls _how to fly?" my hands went to my hips. "And why not?"

"Because they're girls, of course!"

"So I am not a girl now?"

"You're just Annie," the skinny lad stated. "Don't be expecting anything else. Wendy did, and look where…"

"Shhhh…" the boys reached out and covered his mouth.

"Peter was awful mad when Wendy wanted to grow up," the boy with a mass of hair pulled me down so he could whisper into my ear. "He locked himself up in his room and would only talk to Tink. I suppose he was mighty heartbroken she didn't want to stay with him."

"How do ya like my lost boys?" Peter hollered between whistles.

"They are very friendly," I called back, especially liking the three boys who clung to me and declared me their mother. "They seem neglected. Do you ever play with them, Peter?"

"They got each other, don't they?" Peter asked.

"Oh yes, I forgot." I said it more to myself than Peter, since he had went off with his Tinkerbell. "Does he go off often?"

"Everyday," big eyes told me.

"He comes back when he thinks we're all asleep and then he plays his pipes and broods like he has something worth being sad over." my new tall, hairy friend commented.

"He only does that because Wendy left him," freckles proceeded. "He used to always play games with us before then."

"It seems such a long time since he did that." big eyes pouted.

"What are your names?" I laughed, realizing I've been conducting conversation and did not even ask their names.

"Buggy," big eyes said.

"Hairball," the tall, hairy boy said.

"Freckles," the freckled boy said.

"Wow," I giggled. "My, and here I was in my mind giving you names not that far off from that!"

"Annie?"

Turning around, I saw Peter hovering next to the tree house, his fairy gleaming at his side. Looking at him, I smiled and grabbed his hand as I stepped over the railing and joined him. Holding hands, we sailed off to the treetops, and a million thoughts rushed through my head. The lost boys had said I must be special since Peter taught me to fly. Perhaps I could be someone dearer than his Wendy. Maybe I could be the one to rescue Peter from his Neverland.

"Peter…" I murmured his name when rested atop a tree with only the night sky as our canopy. "I can't describe exactly what…"

"Hook is here," Peter interrupted as he sunk down towards the ground. "He has finally come, and he's looking for you."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

"_Nick!" I met to join him in the barn when Wendy had settled inside talking with Jeanette. "You will never guess the stories Wendy has told me!"_

"_Now can I?" Nicholas chuckled at how my running had ruffled my hair and how my bonnet had fallen down and was now hanging over my chest. "What did she tell you, Annie?"_

"_She told me of her adventures with Peter Pan!"_

"_Peter Pan?" Nicholas laughed. "Oh Annie, those stories are only fairytales. More myth than reality. Don't let such fantasies rule your mind. There is so much more out there to enthrall you."_

"_But Nick, Wendy said the stories **are **true and that he **did **come to her!" I argued, getting riled up. "Why, he took her to Neverland and taught her to **fly**! How **romantic **a story it was! He promised her forever, but she turned him down because he did not wish to grow up. I **must **meet him, Nick! I must! Why, we would get along splendidly, for I have no desire to grow up right now. How Jeanette plagues me so with her talk of turning me into a proper lady, as if I care a bit about such things!"_

"_Your sister knows what's best for you."_

"_Or rather what **you** and her believe is best." I frowned as I sat down on the railing of a stall. "Nick, whatever happened to when we were younger? You never used to pester me about such things before. We used to have so much fun, even if I did end up being the braver of the bunch. I miss that boy. What happened to him?"_

"_He grew up, Annie." his hard gaze sent shivers through me and I felt my knees go weak. "And it is about time you did the same too."_

"_I don't want to," I complained. "Why give myself up to the monotonous life I detest?"_

"_Because it is the right thing to do," that gaze patronized so! "Annie, I want to be more for you, but you will never let me."_

"_Whatever do you mean?"_

"_I give you flowers, you demand rainbows. I pay you compliments, but you would rather have me tell you fantasies that should be paid to children, and not a young lady. I wish to take you to dances, but you prefer us gallivanting off through the fields and wrestling in the mud. I want a woman to love, but you want a playmate."_

"_How can you ask for such things?" I wrinkled my nose. "Oh Nick, such things are a bore!"_

"_You don't plan to be a little girl forever, do you, Annie?"_

"_As long as I can, I hope."_

"_Oh Annie…" Nicholas's eyes expressed his sorrow. "Then I can never be what you want, for I do not want a playmate. I am glad I realized that." _

"_But we can be friends, I suppose?" I asked._

"_I don't know…"_

"_You can't end our friendship!" I dropped down at his feet and hugged his legs. "Oh Nick, no! You **can't **do that to me! We have been friends **forever**! I don't know what I would do without you… you're the most important person in my life. I could not survive knowing we would forever be torn apart just because of some silly disagreement!"_

"_Don't cry," Nicholas pulled me up and held me in his arms to stifle my cries. "I never want to hurt you, Annie. You mean so much to me."_

"_And you mean so much to me, Nick." I sobbed onto his shoulder and drew my head up when I was able to sustain my cries. "I don't know where I'd be without you. We grew up together."_

"_Would you try to be what I need you to be?"_

"_I'll try ever so hard, as long as you promise to never leave me."_

"_My Annie…" he murmured before pressing his lips against mine and pulling me even closer._

"_**Nicholas**!" I gasped when he had released me from his hold. "Whatever possessed you!"_

"_I thought…"_

"…_that that was what I **wanted**?" I wiped my mouth, which burned still from his lips. "Why would you think that?"_

"_Can you not see how I feel, Annie?"_

"_I can see that growing up has made you lose your mind." I accused. "If that is what you ask of me, Nicholas James Porter, then I can never be it."_

"_You said you would try…"_

"_Try with all my might, Nicholas, but I can **never **be that for you."_

Gazing at the skies as silent tears blinded me, I stirred only at the sound of Michael coming up and resting beside me. At the sight of my tears, he tilted his head, torn between asking me of my well-being and making matters worse, or leaving me to my tears.

"Where's Nicholas?" I questioned, wiping away my tears.

"He left," Michael shrugged. "Peter and I went to fetch him and he was not there where he was resting. We guessed that he had left to go back home."

"Do you think he was alright?"

"He seemed bored with himself," Michael explained. "It was weird. I've never seen anyone find Neverland dull before."

"Nicholas finds many things that would entertain us dull," I remarked.

"So you like Neverland?"

"Of course," I tilted my head back and looked up at the sky. "It is everything I needed. And Peter… he's magnificent. I see him and wish to spend eternity with him. I want to spend forever with him."

"Wendy said that when Peter first took her to Neverland… when he taught her to fly. But then she went and fell in love like all grown ups do."

"What's wrong with falling in love?"

"Falling in love is a grown-up thing." Michael said. "It puts silly thoughts in your head that you've never thought before, and makes you act like a fool. Wendy would go all red in the face at the sight of Peter and whenever he would be around her, she would look at him all goggle-eyed and she looked **funny**."

"I think I'm falling in love with Peter Pan…" I took in the night air and smiled at the thought. "He's everything I've wanted, and given me things I only dreamed of."

"Don't," Michael warned. "Soon you'll be wanting him to go back with you and leave his Neverland behind, and Peter can't do that! Please, Annie, you _can't_. You'll be just like Wendy if you do. If he leaves, then Hook will take over."

"Who's Hook?"

"He's Peter's rival," Michael stuck out his tongue. "This old pirate that is bent on ruining everything Peter did. Peter cut off one of his hands and fed it to a crocodile once and Hook has been after him since then. That's what Peter told me."

"Why would he want me?"

"Because the last girl Peter brought was Wendy, and when Hook had got hold of Wendy, that was the closest Hook came to finally killing Peter Pan.

The sound of crowing started us both and we climbed down the tree to catch a peep of what was occurring below us.

"The other hand! The other hand!" the lost boys yelled together as they threw rocks at the pirates below their tree house. "Cut off his other hand, Peter!"

Peter flew about, slashing swords with the pirates and laughing as if it were all a mere game. How I flinched every time a sword was turned his way! When I saw a pirate sneak up behind him as he crowed at the pirates he fought with, I shouted his name, but it was lost in the pandemonium below. Leaving the security above, I flew below so he could hear me.

"Peter! Behind you!"

Immediately, I was pulled around and came face to face with a man who smelled like ale and raw fish. His dark eyes were hidden beneath a large hat that shadowed his face and a crooked nose that stuck out as awkwardly as his large chin. A hook for a hand was brandished before my eyes as he grinned menacingly in a way that seemed more like he was bearing his teeth like some wild animal rather than actually smiling.

"Hook!" the man's hat was pushed over his head as Peter pulled me out of his grasp and into his arms.

Looking at the pirates below when he settled me on a branch near the lost boys, Peter cut his initials on the back of the overcoat Hook wore and gave him a boot in the rear before the pirates went off, cursing in an infuriated, drunken manner.

"Why did you leave the treetops?" Peter scowled when the commotion had run down and the lost boys and deserted the treetops for their beds.

"There was a pirate behind you."

"I can handle them. It isn't the first time I've fought them before."

"You could've **died**!"

"Makes the matter only that much more fun." he replied, indignantly.

"How can you talk like that, Peter!"

"How can I not? It was only a bit of fun." he crossed his arms.

"A bit of fun!" I put my hands to my hips. "They had the means to kill you."

"They always do, but that doesn't mean they can get me."

"Why can you not see the danger that I see?"

"I saw danger when Hook grabbed you." the anger in Peter's voice was deterred at his statement.

"You saved my life…" I said softly, lowering my hands from my waist as my own anger left me as well.

"I couldn't let him steal you, Annie."

Not giving myself one moment to think, I leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I don't know what I would do if that man had taken me," I blushed at my gesture. "Thanks."

Peter remained silent for awhile, staring at me intently with his lips partly opened as if words lingered there but he was afraid to let them escape. I tried to keep his gaze, but soon I grew uncomfortable and lowered my head in mortification. He responded to my movement by grabbing my wrists and kissing me lightly on the lips.

I closed my eyes to relish the sweet bit of affection Peter had showed me, and when the fluttering sensation that overtook me disappeared, I opened my eyes to find that Peter had left me stranded on the tree house by myself.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6._

"_Suppose we go to buy some fabric for the wedding?" I stopped myself from entering the parlor at the sound of Wendy and Jeanette's conversation. "I know of a lovely little shop that sells this silk print that you would look simply **gorgeous **in."_

"_We cannot afford it," Jeanette's sensible manner shocked me. "I am quite content just wearing a simple cotton dress."_

"_But would you not like to look good for your husband to be?"_

"_Nicholas cares not how I look. He is not marrying me for my looks, pray you, but because he knows I can be a capable, devote wife."_

_Their talk faded as I held my breath. Nicholas was going to marry Jeanette? My hand was removed from the parlor door as I sank to the floor and hugged my legs to my chest._

"_Does Annie know?"_

"_I suppose Margaret would not mind. She and Nicholas were playmates, so she is bound to enter him into the family easily. It is quite providential."_

"_He is a great deal younger than you…"_

"_Only by two years."_

"_He is closer in age to Margaret?"_

"_Yes, he is a year older. But he is quite mature for his age. Very determined and able. I have no doubt that he will be able to provide for us."_

_The thought of Jeanette moving out and living with Nicholas in some quaint little farm, sitting before the fire the rest of their days sent shivers through my body. An uneasy feeling filled my stomach, and I felt the cream Jeanette had scolded me for helping myself to beyond reasonability would resurface._

"_Do you think Annie will mind?" _

"_Come now, Wendy, you have already asked me."_

"_Yes, but he is Annie's friend. I do not think she will have as positive an attitude as you think."_

"_You cannot think that Margaret might **love** him!"_

_Jeanette's mention of such a thing had me sitting up straight as I opened my mouth to retort her but held my tongue since my presence was not known in this conversation._

"_I am just saying that fifteen is not an unlikely age to develop feeling for a friend. She may fall for him yet."_

"_Margaret refuses to grow up, and cannot even picture herself dressing appropriately, let alone falling in love."_

"_I think Annie might be more grown-up than you think."_

"_Oh, and she still doesn't trump about with her skirts up, giving into her silly childish dreams over what is expected of her?"_

"_I suppose Annie has quite a bit of growing up to do."_

"_Yes, I believe she does."_

"_How silly I was for that moment," Wendy let out a petite laugh. "My, here I am drifting off on talk of Annie when I should be talking of you. Has the butterflies visited you yet?"_

"_They only visit if there is something worth worrying over," Jeanette told her. "But, for Nicholas and myself, I believe we have nothing to fret about. I look forward to my marriage."_

"_Oh, how odd it shall be to have you gone with Nicholas! You must promise to name your fist child after me."_

"_Perhaps the child be a boy?" Jeanette suggested. "I would so much like to please Nicholas with a son first."_

_I gagged at the idea of Jeanette and Nicholas having kids, with little Jeanettes and Nicholases pulling at my skirts and calling me Aunt Margaret Anita. Cringing at such a future, I grew tenser as their conversation continued._

"_Nicholas said he wished us to be married right away, so we may work to supply ourselves with enough necessities before winter. How thoughtful of him!"_

"_Do you love him?" Wendy questioned when Jeanette began to clap her hands about like an excited girl on her birthday._

"_Why, I suppose I do." Jeanette's matter-of-fact tone made me doubt it. "Nicholas never proposed vows of love to me, but I know I can grow to love him. I feel myself loving him more and more as thoughts of spending the rest of my life with him drift about in my head…"_

_Hearing my sister's ambitious talk of marriage with my childhood friend gave me a sense of emptiness I knew no extra helpings of cream could fill. It was then, when the tears began to come, that I realized two truths._

_Firstly, I knew Nicholas was to marry Jeanette, and this reunion of my sister and best friend was leaving me completely alone in this world._

_And I realized then that I was, as Wendy had guessed, in love with Nicholas._

When I had escaped the clutches of my dreamless sleep, I awoke to find a pair of green eyes beaming at me intently. Sitting up from the small bed I slept in, I saw Peter leaning over the side of the bed, hovering a few inches above the ground.

"Do you always watch your guests sleep?" I grumbled groggily.

"No one has slept in here for years," Peter looked to the corner where a rocking chair sat with a torn teddy bear. "Perhaps decades. I lost track of time awhile ago."

"What is it like?" I sat on my legs, hugging a pillow and looking up at Peter.

"What is what like?"

"To live forever."

"I don't know," Peter leaned back in the air, resting his arms beneath his head as he laid his back against an imaginary bed. "Never really thought about it. As far back as I can remember, I see me playing and having fun with my lost boys. That's all I can see before me as well."

"But everything has a beginning, I suppose. Do you ever wonder where you came from?"

"I don't need to."

"Don't you ever have questions?"

"Everything I need to know, I already do." he answered roughly.

"But don't you ever get curious?" I knew I was pushing my luck with the situation, but I was falling for Peter fast and wanted to know everything I could before he pushed me away as he had with Wendy. "How can you go about your days living like you do, knowing no other day is any different from the next? It's all just a game for you. What sense of purpose do you have? When all has crumbled to dust and all have fallen and you remain in your Neverland alone with only eternity as company, will only memories of games that you cannot differentiate from the previous one be your only companion? Forever is a dreadfully long time, Peter, and all games should come to an end, I suppose. But to end, they need to begin. Have you no recollection of your past before Neverland? Before Tinkerbell and the lost boys and Hook?"

"I remember Hook," Peter slowly lowered from where he floated until he was sitting beside me with his head hung low. "He had taken my parents. I was left alone in the woods when they disappeared. Hook had taken me and called me his son. I lived with the pirates until I was sixteen."

I saw the tension passing through his body and reached for his hand, giving him an encouraging squeeze.

"Some older woman, I think one of Hook's mistresses, tried to seduce me and when I had shouted for Hook, she had only laughed and said that Hook didn't care a mite about me. That he had killed my parents and kept me alive only because I had entertained him and had the same spirit in my eyes as my parents, and he wanted me as a reminder of his evil deed. It was then I realized my life was all a lie and that I wanted revenge."

"Oh Peter…"

"When I had rushed out of the room, the lady went to tell Hook and he came to fetch me from his room where I hid. At the sound of hearing him opening the door, I had grabbed his sword and cut off the hand he had used to open the door. Hook was too shocked to respond quickly enough and I had escaped before anyone had time to react. You should have seen his face! It looked as if I had taken his revolver and shot him dead in the face, which was not much different from what I had done. I knew from then on I wanted revenge on Captain Hook!"

"Peter…" his boyish tears caused me to wrap my arms around him and comfort him as mother had comforted me numerous times in the past whenever I went into one of my fits. "Sshhh… hush now. Everything is alright in the end, I suppose."

"Tink saved me," Peter grasped the ends of my nightshirt with his hands. "I was stuck in the woods, crying and wishing I never had to grow up and be some nasty old man like Hook. I didn't want to be bothered with things like ugly women seducing me or getting older or dying. I didn't want to grow up. Tink found me, crying beneath a tree grasping the bear my parents had given me, and she taught me to fly. She took me to Neverland and gave me what I wanted. I was allowed to stay a kid forever and never worry about anything that I had to deal with before my arrival in Neverland."

"But don't you miss your parents?" I ask. "You will never see them again if you remain in Neverland forever."

"I've forgotten them," Peter cried vulnerably. "I cannot see their faces when I close my eyes. What if they don't remember me? I cannot picture growing old and dying!" Peter began to whimper as he voice faltered. "I don't want to die, Annie. I can't bear the thought of it. I won't. I **won't**! I'm afraid…" his voice broke into a whisper. "Promise me forever, Annie."

His soft cries of help and a companion hit right at home. Grabbing his shoulders and looking him square in the eyes, I kissed him with the little bit of experience I had, which was probably enough to write on a grain of rice, if that.

He responded by returning my kiss and pulling me close, wrapping each other in our arms and clinging to one other with a need for a companion. We were both in need of someone to protect us from the emptiness that surrounded us and the hollowness of an eternity, and our tight grips on one another only showed one another that all we needed was what was in our arms…

…and now that we knew, I don't think we ever wanted to let it go.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.

_News of Jeanette's wedding weighed me down, and the conversation I had listened in on lingered around where I sat at the supper table. Nicholas sat across from Jeanette, who sat next to me as I gazed across at Wendy beside Nicholas. Matthew was still in the barn working, so Mother had taken his seat at the head of the table. _

"_A week?" Mother looked at Jeanette and Nicholas. "So soon? Should you not wait to test if this relationship shall work?"_

"_I must admit, I had my doubts in the beginning, but after today…" I blushed when Nicholas looked over at me. "…I know nothing shall deter my love and devotion to Jeanette."_

"_It would be wise to marry now, Mother." Jeanette said. "Nicholas and I have known one another all of our lives. We need no more time to become better acquainted, I assure you."_

"_He did grow up in this household…" doubt was still etched in Mother's face. "But he was more of Annie's friend."_

"_Why must you all question our love?" tears filled her eyes as she stood and hit her hands on the table, the hurt escaping into her voice. "I am tired of it! You all talk as if Nicholas should love Margaret. Why can he not love me? Why must you all question and inquire of her when it is I who am getting married?"_

"_We were only concerned with Annie…"_

"_Margaret! **Margaret**!" Jeanette interrupted Wendy, sending her face aghast. "Her name is Margaret Anita Maurice. How do you expect her to grow up when you coddle her so with pet names? It seems I am the only one who knows her name and yet you all treat me as if I know nothing of my own sister!"_

"_Jeanette?" I opened my door to find her gazing out at Nicholas and Matthew driving the cattle to their stalls._

"_Everyday they do the same routine, yet they are content." Jeanette sighed. "This marriage is finally changing this life a bit. No more waking up and bustling about the house as I do now. I'll have my own home with a husband and children someday, perhaps."_

"_Isn't that what you want?" I asked. "You're always stressing such a lifetime."_

"_Is there any other choice?" Jeanette laughed coldly. "The difference between you and me is that you do not give into what is expected of you and yet people still love you the more for it."_

"_No one is asking of you to do everything you do."_

"_But it is expected from me nonetheless," Jeanette sighed. "I'm afraid if ever I **were **to change, Nicholas shall not love me, or shall call off the engagement, as short as it may be."_

"_Nicholas cares for…"_

"_I've seen how he looks at you!" Jeanette snapped. "Anyone with eyes can plain see he would marry you in an instant if ever you had a hankering for it."_

"_You know I wouldn't…"_

"_Do not lie to me, Margaret Anita Maurice!" Jeanette demanded. "I know when someone is lying to me. I saw how crimson you turned when he looked at you! Do not deny it."_

"_I know," I lowered my head in shame._

"_I never thought the day would come when my sister married before I." Jeanette smiled weak and wanly. _

"_You wouldn't break the engagement!" I gasped, surprised that I had made matters come to this. "You can't, Jeanette! Nicholas would be heartbroken."_

"_You love one another."_

"_No! No! **No**!" I shook my head, startled at how easy the words came. "I could never marry Nicholas. I won't have it! I never want to give in to that and have kids and be called mother. It would drive me insane! Oh Jeanette, you **must **marry him!"_

"_I love him…" Jeanette sighed in her melancholy. "But I love you more, Margaret. You must promise me you will be alright with it."_

"_Oh, I shall be ever so good and give you both a kiss when it is all through!"_

_Nodding her head, Jeanette walked out, leaving me to realize I had just signed an agreement for a lonely life ahead of me._

"Don't let me go," I said when we had stopped crying and sat atop a branch, our legs dangling and fingers entwined.

"I never plan to… I promised you forever… didn't I?" his caring gaze was all I could see as his hand went to my cheek. "You're beautiful, Annie. I've never felt like this before."

"I've never wanted to, but now that I have, I hope it never leaves."

"The adventures we'll have!" Peter grinned. "Why, together no one could come between us!"

"I once thought I had felt something like this," I leaned my head on his shoulder. "It was only later this day, yet it seems centuries ago. When I heard Nicholas was to marry my sister… it was like watching the two most important people walk away and leave me. But I had let him go. I let them both go. It was ever so hard saying it would be alright to Jeanette and Mother and Wendy and everyone, but I found it was hardest to say to myself. Did you ever love someone like that, Peter?"

"I guess, Wendy." Peter shrugged. "I wanted her to be with me forever, but she wanted to grow up and could not see me wanting to remain in my Neverland. When it came down to it, I knew I could survive on my own without Wendy, but I did not know if I would be as well without Neverland and my lost boys and Tink. Wendy tried to find me once, but she could not find Neverland. How I wanted to go after her and scare her and play, but I knew she had given that up when she had chosen to grow up. There was no going back now. Letting Wendy go was one of the hardest things I had to do."

"Wendy still thinks about you…"

"I know… I can feel her call out to me still." a dark shadow passed over Peter's youthful face and I saw him to be nearer in age to Nicholas than Michael, an observation I had never noticed before.

"Wendy still calls for you?"

"Not out loud, but I can feel her." Peter grew tense. "Wendy is a part of me. I felt incomplete when she left. Nothing seemed right and no one could make me feel better. But I don't want to be alone. I don't want to go somewhere that I'm not sure I could come back from."

"Do you think we could come back from where we are?" I smiled at myself, finding security in leaning on his body for support. "I feel quite content sitting here forever."

"Only if you go back with me," Peter tilted his head back. "Suppose I take you to see the mermaids tomorrow? Would you like that?" the childish tone came back to his voice. "They would be awful jealous I brought another girl to play, but I think they would like you. But they might try to drown you. They did that to Wendy once, but she got all serious, even though the girls were just playing around."

"I suppose one has a right to take being drowned seriously, don't you think, Peter?"

"They didn't mean to."

"But they might have hurt Wendy."

"Wendy was just spoiling the fun."

"Really now?" I said smugly. "Would you let them do that to me?"

"I guess I might let them give you a taste of the water, but eventually I'd step in."

"How reassuring Peter!"

"Come now, you know I wouldn't let them…"

"I know," I laughed. "I was only teasing. I know you wouldn't ever purposefully go out to hurt me, Peter. Of course I'll let you introduce me to everyone in Neverland. I have the intention to meet them all anyway. Then you must go with me and meet my family. You shall love Mother. She is the sweetest mother, but I do not know if you would get along with Jeanette. Matthew is pleasant enough, but he's usually too busy with being the man of the house to do much of anything else. There's Nicholas, of course, but you've already met him. That's about it for the family, but I am sure you shall get along splendidly with them all."

"Ah, Annie, you know I can't do that."

"Do what?"

"Leave Neverland," Peter smirked as if what I was requesting was the most ridiculous thing I could ask for.

"Whyever not? You left Neverland to take me there."

"But suppose I go there and they all are really nice and I get attached and won't want to come back?" Peter brought up. "I already said I won't go anywhere I'm sure I won't return from."

"But you must meet my family! However do you expect them to know where I've been? I cannot say I'm going off to live with some fellow they've never met but can never meet. They would never let me come back."

"Why would you want to go back?"

"_Why_?" I sat up and crossed my arms. "Because they are my family, of course! Do you know of anyone who would leave their family in the middle of the night and never return? Why, it would be dreadful, and completely disrespectful and just not right at all! I was raised better than that."

"Annie, I can't let you leave."

"Why not?" I scoffed. "You cannot expect me to stay in Neverland without ever seeing my family again, now can you?"

"I promised you forever, what else could you want?"

"But they're my family!" I argued. "How can you expect me to go on without ever seeing my family again? Without ever saying goodbye? Why Peter, I cannot leave my home. I would miss them all dreadfully."

"You can't go back."

"Peter, I can't stay here forever."

"Fine!" Peter stood up. "If you want to go home, then go! Just remember that if you leave, there is no going back. You will never come back to Neverland again!"

"Peter!"

I flew after him but my skills as a flier were limited and he was soon loss in the mass of trees. Sighing, I flew to the ground and closed my eyes to gather my thoughts.

_I cannot stay and never see my family again. _My mother's face filled my mind as I remember how she could look around our tiny, compact home and look as if she had the world at her feet. Could I ever find happiness like that? Would I be able to wake up in Neverland and have that same expression on my face? Could I live knowing I would never change… that I would remain this age forever in an unchanging world of dreams and fantasies where I would never grow up?

"I must go home." I opened my eyes at my decision.

Turning around to get one last look at Neverland, I saw that I was in the woods again, standing before a clearing of dead trees just as the morning sun was beginning to peak through the thick trees, shining a small ray of light right in front of me as if promising a bright future ahead.

AN: Not over yet. Hehehe... just marking a new transition in the story. Hope you all are enjoying it so far, and yeah... sorry if my story isn't the typical Peter Pan chronicle most people look for. Thank you again to my reviewers and all who put some time to read this. It means the world to me. : )


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

_Sobbing in my room helplessly while the songs of the night tapped against my window, I had never felt so alone. If only things stayed the same and I did not have to worry about having people leave and get married or die or grow up. _

_Not even as my sobs grew louder did the winds song fade, and as I opened my window to allow the song to enter my room and take over my sorrow, I felt as if I would be lifted up. My long nightgown flew about me along with my long hair that was finally free from the pins that had suffocated my head the whole day. Putting my head out of the window, Wendy's story loitered about the air and I could almost hear her voice telling me of her adventures._

_"Peter Pan…" I had uttered his name barely above a whisper, yet it seemed that the wind had picked it up and brought it sailing about over the fields. _

_Above me the moon gleamed, and I could feel my tears against my cheek. Wiping my cheeks, I saw the vines growing along a small lattice that leaned against the house. Without another thought as to the precautions of what I was about to do, I stepped out of my window and down the wall, dropping down to the ground when I was ten feet high and landing on my feet in a way that had my legs buckle and snap._

_The sight of my window open with my curtains flying out had me laughing. If Jeanette had just saw my performance, she would have me in the kitchen cleaning dishes and sewing until kingdom come. She would ship me off to an academy for girls that were in dire need to be polished, and I would become a regular heathen and get kicked out just to smite her and show I would not be that easily rid of. _

_"I feel as if I could fly…" I giggled as I twirled about and skipped into the fields, dropping onto my back when I had reached the middle of the tall weeds. "Peter…"_

_"You called?" _

_Out of my gaze and bright thoughts of rebelliousness and escapades, I realized a boy was standing over me. My first thought was that I wore a thin nightgown that was of the most revealing nature, and I sat up and covered myself, feeling exposed to this stranger._

_"What are you doing that for? Do you suppose I care a bit about what some silly girl is wearing?" the boy laughed audaciously, full of mirth and jollity. _

_"Who are you?" _

_"You called me," he shook his head. "Obviously you know who I am. Who are **you**?"_

_"Margaret Anita Maurice."_

_"**Margaret Anita Maurice?" **he snorted at my name. "You sound like some old lady who talks to her cat and sews quilts!"_

_"Not everyone calls me by my full name…"_

_"I think I like Annie," he interrupted decisively. "Margie sounds like the name of some fat girl who eats too much, and Maggie is too boyish. Anita is too stiff, and Ann too plain. Annie sounds best."_

_"That is what my mother and Nicholas call me!" I stated. "Well… Nicholas, he doesn't call me Annie anymore, but mother still does. I love being called Annie though. It seems so much more fun than Margaret. It is such an **old **name, and I don't think that I am quite ready yet to be old."_

_"I never shall be ready."_

_"Oh, I think I never shall as well." I grinned at how similar he seemed to myself. "Why, it seems such a bore, and I would rather go out and run about, not being bothered with grown-up things."_

_"I think we shall get along fine, Annie." he returned my grin. "Even if you **are** a girl. Come now."_

_"Where are we going?" I stared at his outstretched hand hesitantly. "Will I be back by the morning? I don't want to get in trouble by Jeanette, or worry mother."_

_"No worries tonight," he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet in one swift jerk, causing me to laugh out of surprise. "That'll only ruin the fun."_

_"What do you have planned?" I asked, taking a good look at his face that glowed with excitement. "Anything in particular?"_

_"Just like you girls to try and ruin the surprise," he commented before taking off through the fields. "You going to stand there like a ninny all night or are you going to follow me? At that pace we shall all be in our graves by the time we get there!"_

A year had gone by since my visit to Neverland. Stuck in a world where time proceeds on, I made the best of Nicholas and Jeanette's wedding, even celebrating and being excited when Jeanette announced her pregnancy. Thoughts of being Ol' Aunt Margaret Anita no longer seemed that unbearable, for I could always just be Auntie Annie if all else failed. I pictured myself telling my niece or nephew all of my childhood secrets and where all the best hiding places were. So lost in my anticipation for the future, I had near forgotten the boy who had promised me forever.

"Wilhelma Georgiana," I cooed while cradling my newborn niece. "You have it worse than I. Jeanette will show you no mercy. Your first words will be 'thank you kindly' and you'll be curtsying before you even know how to walk."

When Wilhelma was born a month ago, I had moved in with Jeanette to tend to the baby. I slept in the nursery with my niece, resting before the bay window on a small bed that sat before the grand window, which was like a portal to another world.

"But with me here, you'll have an iron will. I'd like to see how well you'll challenge Jeanette's authority while under my wing."

Resting my sleeping niece in her crib, I took a deep breath. My sister had won in her challenge to cultivate me. My wedding gift to Jeanette was that I would try to be more cooperative and I could not have given her a better gift. It took just as much effort, probably more, to obey Jeanette's demands. Sitting before a crowd of people dressed like some doll, I had never felt so ridiculous. I frowned at how I was beginning to look more like a lady and spent countless nights mourning over how much my appearance has changed.

"Such a figure," Mother would compliment. "Count your blessing, Annie. You have much to be thankful for."

Thankful indeed! Why just last evening, I had some random fellow who saw me at Wilhelma's Christening follow me home and propose during the celebration afterward. How fortunate that I got to spend my day completely mortified from turning down a fellow suitor who did not even know my name, nor I his. Such luck I have, getting to push away everyone who lays themselves before me as if I should be thankful. Thankfulness is the last feeling that goes throughout me these days.

My only companion has been Wendy. Lately her fair complexion has changed to that of a ghastly whiteness that was not becoming nor healthy for a young lady (according to Jeanette). Her figure, already quite slim to begin with, was now frail and seemed as if the wind could up and take her away like a leaf.

Even her spirit seemed diminished. No longer did she laugh freely, but smiled softly and nodded her head, as this sadness passed over her eyes. When I had asked Jeanette about Wendy's well-being, she had only denied her being sick.

"Come now, Margaret, Wendy is well and could not be better." Jeanette lied. "I know not where your anxiety towards her being sick comes from, but it is entirely unhealthy for a young lady."

Everyone could feed me falsehoods all they like, but nothing could hide the truth that Wendy Darling was dying.

"Peter… where are you?" I murmured to the closed window, pressing my hand against the glass at a world I had been cut off from.

"Where indeed…" a dark voice chuckled before a hook was wielded before my eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

_"Good thing the rains finally came last week," I commented as I walked through the fields, thick with wildflowers, with Wendy. "I suppose those trees might have fallen over in dehydration if the rain had not came when it did."_

_"It does look a deal… healthier." Wendy's weak reply had me on edge, considering she could talk endlessly about anything. "Suppose we rest now? All of this walking is tiresome."_

_"We have been out if not for an hour, at the most!" I exclaimed, dropping to the ground with a pout. "Why, Wendy… this is not like you at all. You never play anymore. Rather, you talk of your joints aching and you being out of breath, as if you were some feeble old woman kneeling over in her rocking chair! I've had enough of it, Miss Darling. Enough of your facade, and back to the old Wendy full of smiles and stories to share. You have not told me a story in a dreadfully long time, you know."_

_"There are no stories to tell…"_

_"No stories?" I raised my eyebrows. "But certainly there are. I would love to hear of your adventures in Neverland, perhaps? You know all there is to know of Hook and Peter Pan and…"_

_"Peter…" Wendy breathed, dropping to her knees next to me, her hand to her chest. "Oh Peter!"_

_"Whatever is the matter?" Wendy's gasps of air made me uneasy and I moved closer. "Wendy, are you alright? Shall I run for help?"_

_Her gasps for breath soon went away, and she was left breathing hard as I stared at how her chest rose and fell deeply. When she looked up, her face possessed a ghostly pallor and had a light gleam of perspiration on her forehead. She set a clammy hand upon my shoulder and let out a weak smile._

_"Just a mite of a cold," she tried to explain. "It shall soon…"_

_"What's wrong?" I demanded firmly. "I am no longer a child, Wendy Darling. Jeanette has made sure of that. Anything that occurs I am perfectly capable to handle."_

_"Nothing is wrong…"_

_"Why do you persist to lie to me?" I asked softly. _

_"Annie… I… I do not know what's wrong!" Wendy grabbed my hands for support. "Why… the doctor told us it was only a cold. Nothing horrid or dangerous at all. Of course we believed him. Was it not his **job **to ensure my well-being and cure whatever was wrong? When I started coughing haphazardly and I soon found blood coming up, I thought nothing of it. Why should I? The doctor told me it would pass and that I had nothing serious. What doubt was there? Then I started having fainting spells. I would just walk downstairs and be so exhausted that I would pass out. I would play it off, saying it was just the heat, for surely I thought that was the matter. It was only when I had began coughing up blood and then passed out before a guest during supper that mother summoned the doctor again. He confirmed that something was indeed wrong, and then told me that… that I had consumption."_

_"Oh Wendy…" I looked up at her beautiful face that had lost its youthful splendor to the sickness that claimed her body. "Suppose you get better?"_

_"There is no cure…" a silent tear left her eye and it was more touching to me than a dozen tears, and soon I was bawling like a nitwit. "Come now, Annie, there is no reason to fret. I have plenty of time…"_

_"For what?" I cried. "You're dying, Wendy Darling. However can you expect us to have a good time ever again now that I shall constantly be wondering if that shall be the last moment I spend with you? Why… it shall drive me insane! You weren't meant to die."_

_"It is all in the hands of the Lord, and I trust whatever awaits me in the future."_

_" But Wendy… you will never marry, or have kids, or grandchildren, or even see me get married or…" I shook my head, ashamed of my selfish thoughts. "I'm sorry Wendy. I had not meant to scold you for a fate you cannot control. That was entirely inappropriate behavior, andI apologize. I just… I just wish that you were well and we did not have to worry about such things."_

_"It is all part of life, Annie." Wendy smiled. "Everything that lives must die, just as everything that is in existence must come to an end. What kind of life would you have if you could not ever finish the journey? Is it not what awaits you at the end of the adventure the greatest moment of it all? Why, life would not be half it is worth, if you lived forever, now would it?"_

"Release me!" I ordered, fighting with all my might to free myself from Hook's grasp as he dragged me down the halls of his ship. "You have no use of me!"

"That is where you are wrong. You are the most useful thing I could have."

"No, I'm not!"

"Peter is bound to come after you…"

"He does not care a bit about me!" I shouted. "I have not seen the likes of Peter Pan in well over a year. I am nothing but a silly memory among millions in his head. Insignificant. Not worth mentioning or remembering."

"Pray you are wrong."

"Whyever would I? It is the truth."

"If you have no purpose to me," Hook tipped his hat to an unruly, robust pirate who grinned a mouth of silver and gold. "Then I am sure my crew might find use of you. They have not had a decent lass for centuries."

"You would _never_!" I spat, as a fear towards a situation I had never before imaged sprung to my head.

"My _dear_ child," Hook sneered as he tossed me into a room. "What kind of man would I be, if I were not to keep my word?"

"You are no man," I retorted. "I hope Peter cuts off your other hand for this matter. Or rather, he just kills you and feeds the rest of you to that crocodile."

"I shall fill that vile creature's stomach with the likes of you before that happens, you brat!" and with a dark laugh, he slammed the door and locked the door.

"Peter!" I cried, banging on the walls with my fists until I felt they were raw. "Let me out! You can't do this! Let me out this instant!"

"You be best not te be makin te cap'n mad," Smee, a rather eccentric fellow, walked in with a jug and a piece of bread. "Some ale an bread fo' te lass, how bout it?"

"I am not hungry…"

"Be best ye be eatin it, fo' ye ne'er know when te cap'n be gettin a likin te not be sharing 'is food."

"Would Peter come for me?" I asked him, desperate for anyone to talk to. "I would like to think he would, but I do not know if he would."

"'e be comin fo' Wendy," Smee shrugged after he placed the tray on a table. "Ay don' be seein why 'e ain't be comin' fo' ye, Miss."

"Thank you kindly," I gave him a smile. "For talking to me. You… aren't like the other pirates."

"On'y 'cause someun on tis ship need be te good un' it all," Smee gave me a clumsy salute before departing.

"I wish I could take the word of a pirate," I sighed to myself as I looked at the tray of food before me. "But it is either I trust the one person I've met in Neverland who showed some compassion towards me, or I might as well be fed to the crocodile now."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

_"I miss Wendy," Michael carped as we sat beneath a tree with Wilhelma, who had taken a great fondness to being outdoors. "Do you think she'll be coming back soon, Annie?"_

_"I suppose," my curt reply had me disappointed in myself, for my answer was a response that I would expect receiving from some adult who thought me incompetent to handle the truth of the situation. "I do not know when she shall come back though, Michael, if ever she does. Her sickness worsens and I do not think it shall improve any time soon. We can only pray she gets well now."_

_"Oh bothersome!" Michael pouted as he began to pick at the grass quietly. "Annie… might Wendy die?"_

_His question made the air seem thick with uncertainty and I skipped a breath or two in trepidation over the answer to his question. _

_"It is very possible…"_

_"I don't want Wendy to die, Annie." Michael whimpered as his childish tears came. "Peter is smart to not leave Neverland. Why… if I had known Wendy might die, I don't think I would ever leave Neverland."_

_"But dying is something that everyone must do." I said softly, although I was experiencing the same thoughts and opinions as he. "It is a matter of life, a part of our journey everyone must someday venture if they plan to make an end of it."_

_"I don't want to die," Michael replied fearfully. "I cannot imagine not waking up in my bed and not being here."_

_"It is something I cannot imagine as well…"_

_"Why does Wendy not call for Peter?" Michael cried. "He would take her back, if only she asked. Then she does not need to bother about dying."_

_"Wendy has accepted her fate. She chooses not to run from it into some world of fantasy, forever bound to being who she is for eternity."_

_"What is so wrong with that?"_

_"Everything changes. Not even the world in which we live in goes unfaltering. To be part of this world, you need to alter along with it. Nothing can replace the sense of growing alongside with everything around you. It is all part of life. You ask her to go to a world where she will never change or grow any older, but that is no life. If that is the future you have to offer her, then she might as well die now."_

Sounds of drunken pirates slamming into the walls of the ship as they swaggered down the hallways blended in with the beating of the waves and the hi-hoes of the crew above deck. Once in awhile, I would hear the intoxicated talk of the unruly men wishing to "get a bit o' te lass te cap'n brought in", in which a vulgar lump would arrive in my throat before I commenced to bang on the walls, shouting for a boy who had forgotten of me.

"There be nothin' left o' ye, lass, if'n ye be beatin' yourself against those walls." Smee commented upon finding me sobbing against the wall, my hand that continued to hit the wall growing weaker and weaker with each sway of flesh against wood. "Come on, now, an eat a bit o' food, eh?"

"Peter has forgotten about me," I cried as I rested on the rough bench and took a bite of bread. "He shall never come for me."

"Now lass, don't ye be thinkin' that. Te cap'n wouldn't be takin ye if'n he thought Pan might not come."

"Then why is he not here?" I wiped my eyes, ashamed of my fearful tears. "Why has he not come? Does he not realize the severity of the situation?"

"I do not know," Smee replied before retreating to the door as he always does. "Peter Pan is but a child, miss. You cannot expect so much from a child."

"Peter…" my tears took reign once more as I stood and left my food to rot.

"Losin faith now?" Hook's sinister voice entered the room as I felt my body go tense when he opened the door. "Believin that fool of a boy has forgotten you?"

"I told you I had no role in Peter Pan's life now." I threw aside my doubt to look him straight in the eye. "I have no use for you."

"Ye don't be needing to convince me," Hook sneered. "I only came to give you a new companion."

The loud banging of feet stomping and a young boy's shouts gave me goosebumps, and my mouth opened wide when Hairball was heaved into the room with so much force that when he collided into the small table that held my food Smee brought, it was knocked over and the jug of ale fell to the floor with a strident smash. My eyes locked on a piece of paper that lay beneath a piece of broken pottery, and I let my eyes leave it only to ensure that Hook had not caught sight of it.

"Perhaps Pan will come now…" Hook laughed.

"Annie… Hook…he didn't… he didn't try to hurt you, did he?" Hairball gasped when Hook had left as he sat up and rubbed his head.

"No… I am fine." I threw his question aside as I bent down and picked up the piece of paper that was soggy from the ale. "I wonder who had…"

"Annie?" Hairball stood up and approached me. "What does it say?"

"The note's from Peter!" I put the paper to my chest and cried with joy. "He has not forgotten."

"Girls are weird," Hairball remarked, dropping to the ground and proceeded to scratch the hair that still had taken over his head. "Fancy only you girls can find something to squeal about in some silly note."

"Peter is coming for us. Why should I not be ecstatic?"

"Why would he _not _come for you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Of course he would come!" Hairball snapped. "Why… Peter is… he is in love with you! And how horrid it is, indeed, Annie. I hope you're happy."

"Peter does not…"

"Yes he does!" Hairball retorted. "Ever since you left, he has been locked up in his room. He won't even let Tink in. He left his room only a day or so ago, I think, and he isn't the same. He looks… _older. _And when Freckles went to ask him to play, he gave him the weirdest look… like he was asking him to cut off his head or something. Peter has never turned down a good day of fun. It is just as it was when Wendy left!"

"Peter was probably just suffering from a headache or taken ill," I shook my head at how absurd I sounded. "There are plenty of explanations behind his behavior."

"Peter doesn't get sick!" Hairball's eyes almost popped out of its sockets at my suggestion. "Why… how can he? He doesn't get any older. But Annie, Peter _is _getting older. I can feel it. We all can. He's ignoring Tink, and I have not seen him fly in the longest time."

"Peter is _not _in love with me!" I barked defensively.

"Pan! Pan!" our thoughts focused on the pirates running outside our room. "He's here!"

"On deck… te lot o' ye!" Hook's familiar orders made the sounds outside that much louder. "All hands on deck!"

When the scrambling of the pirates halted, Hairball and I turned to one another, our eyebrows raised. He persisted to scratch his head and then shrugged, not knowing any explanation. Uncertainty and doubt filled the room and only left at the entering of a proverbial laugh.

"You thought I had forgotten you?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11. **

_"That was some mighty mature words from you, Margaret." I cringed when I saw Nicholas approach me. "I wonder if the Margaret from last year would have said the same thing if you had this conversation then."_

_"Can you say hello to your father?" I asked Wilhelma in an attempt to ignore Nicholas. "You look just like him, you know. The same blonde hair and blue eyes. Why, you never would guess you were related to my sister at all, except that you have the same small ears and small eyes. Quite the opposite of dear Ol' Aunt Margaret Anita."_

_"Why do you desire Wilhelma Georgiana to call you by your full name?" Nicholas asked, apparently amused at the idea. "You give us nothing but trouble, as if mentioning the likes of Margaret Anita is the most iniquitous thing that might be done in this world."_

_"Your somniferous talk tires me," I yawned. "But I suppose that, as garish as my name is, I should come to accept it eventually. Might as well start it now."_

_"I am glad you have dropped your thoughts of numinous fantasies rather than the pragmatic life that you should have." Nicholas smiled and bent to pick up his daughter. "You will be a perfect Aunt for Wilhelma Georgiana."_

_"Might you have picked a name that might not unman the poor dear?"_

_"Her name is quite an ostentatious name, and I am sure that anyone shall acquiesce with that statement."_

_"I preferred when you were placated," I remarked in a blasé fashion. "You've turned into a regular ignominy, Nicholas. You are nothing like the boy I knew you to be."_

_"What do you know of who I am, Margaret?" Nicholas replied. "I might have changed, but you cannot expect me to be some five-year-old for the rest of my life, now can you? I have a child now. I must support a family and protect them. Can a five-year-old do that? It is a wonderful thing to be so blithe and live in some chimerical world where there is no monotony and need to be filled with rancor, but that is not how it is."_

_"No need to be fractious," I picked a flower and began picking the petals off one-by-one. "I believe you."_

_"Then why not act like you do?"_

_"Because… Nicholas." I slowly stood up to look at him eye-to-eye. "I am the kind of person who rather enjoys not becoming so full of vitriol that I forget the joys of my day. You have enough issues to deal with to choke on, and yet if you gave yourself the opportunity to climb a tree or take a moment to let out a good laugh, perhaps your problems might not seem so burdening after all."_

_"You know nothing of my problems, Margaret Anita Maurice. Nor do you wish to know of them. It would do you some good to grow up and experience some of the things adults experience. Maybe then you would understand. For right now, you know nothing."_

_"I used to love you too, you know, Nicholas." I turned to the forest. "But you weren't the only person I've ever loved. I've allowed love to pass me by twice. Both times because there was someone I loved more that I was willing to sacrifice everything for. I could not bear to see my sister hurt, nor could I imagine a life without her and mother. Love is a glorious gift, Nicholas. It is the greatest gift you can give someone or receive, but it can also be the worst. Do not tell me I know nothing of the adult world, for I've had my mouthful of it, and already I yearn for death to claim me, for I am sick of it."_

_"This isn't about us anymore, is it?" Nicholas questioned. _

_"I cannot find Neverland, Nick." my voice broke as I ran into his arms, crying beside a silent Wilhelma. _

"Peter!" I gasped as he covered my mouth, grabbed my hand, and dragged me into the abandoned hall. "Hook is down here… he said… he sent his crew…"

"Hook is in his cabin sleeping," Peter said, pulling me into a room where a window was open. "By the time he gets to his senses, he will never know what happened."

"But… I heard…"

"All ye heard, my bonnie lass, is te talk o' a hollow-headed cap'n." Peter grinned triumphantly as he helped me up a table to the open window. "Now, I don't know if you can swim, but there's not much time, so just jump and I'll join you in a second."

"Why don't we just…"

"I would, but…" Peter turned to Hairball, who stood in the middle of the room scratching his head and staring at the ceiling, stuck in his own bemusement. "…I can't fly."

"Oh Peter…" I trailed off just as he pushed me out the window. "The nerve of you!"

"You would have been mourning over me for hours, if I didn't." Peter teased when he joined me. "I couldn't afford us getting caught."

"Hair…" I stopped just as he came jumping into the water with a loud splash.

"Shore is mighty far away," Hairball observed, shaking his hair that had fallen over his eyes. "I am a good swimmer, Peter, but I don't think I could swim that far."

"That is where we come in…"

Surrounding us now were six mermaids, all jeweled in diamonds of dew and raindrops. Their eyes, the exact color of the sea, stared at us with a sparkle that reminded me of the stars. Their hair was long and tangled with shells and pearls. I gasped when two seized my wrists with their rubbery hands.

"We wouldn't hurt you," one reassured.

"Yes, we are nice to all of Peter's friends."

"Besides, Peter said that you were special."

_"_Oh, we were not supposed to say that," the other whispered, as we turned around to see if Peter had heard. They let out a sigh of relief to see Peter fully oblivious as he conversed with his two companions. "If Peter had heard…"

"_If_ he had heard," the first one turned to me, reminding me much of the young girls who I saw constantly looking around to see if those they were gossiping on could possibly be listening. "You would be seeing quite a bashful Peter indeed."

"What a thought!" the other giggled. "I have not seen so much as a blush come over the boy."

"That is, until we questioned him about you." the other winked. "It might be safe to say the dear is in love."

"Peter does not love me…"

"Suit yourself," she said. "But I cannot think of anyone else he might go across the ocean to save from the grasp of Hook."

"He did that for Wendy but, of course, then he was able to fly."

"How convenient for him, although I find _your_ story far more romantic than that of Wendy's."

"Besides, that girl was rejoicing over Peter's love even before he declared it."

"Such vanity."

"The self-aggrandizing ways of her!"

"And for her to say we would try to kill her."

"Why would we need to drown her?"

"She was doing a pretty fine job of doing that on her own."

"Couldn't even take a bit of fun when we threw her in."

"She needed a bit of wakening up. That opened her eyes from how they goggled at Peter."

"Even if it _was_ for a minute."

The mermaids giggled and turned around at Peter to see him staring straight at me. I bit my lip and looked away, pretending that the intensity I had seen present was only him wanting to be on land once more.

"Yes… the dear is in love. No doubt about it." they bothconfirmed.


	12. Chapter 12

_Thank you so much to the reviewers. You all are awesomely awesome. : D You guys have made this a fun experience for my first fanfiction, and I greatly appreciate it. I'm sorry to say that my story is almost at it's end. It should be closing up tomorrow or the next. Hope you enjoy it though._

**Chapter 12. **

_"I couldn't do it. I could not leave Jeanette and mother. How I wanted to stay, and never worry about everything ever again! Even now I desire it… not because I grow weary of my life here, but because I miss him so much. He taught me to fly, Nick, and how I long to just give in and fly away from it all. To finally be at peace. It seems that here, the only thing that might offer me such a sensation would be to die. But I cannot imagine dying and never seeing Peter again. He will never die, Nick."_

_"That is because he is a coward."_

_"He is _not _a coward!"_

_"The poor fellow is afraid of death!" Nicholas shouted, sending Wilhelma into a fit. "He is afraid of facing death and facing change. He does not wish to see everything around him change and watch as time takes its toll on everything. His only remembrance of time is watching you and Wendy and all that have left him to grow up. He is a spectator… a despondent fool trapped in his world of misery that is of his own making."_

_"Stop it! _Stop_!" I covered my ears. "It is not true. Peter isn't afraid of anything…"_

_"Take a look at the situation, Margaret! He let Wendy go. He let you go. He allowed love to pass him twice as well, for no other reason but because he did not wish to grow up. Would you not give up everything for those you love? Why, you did, Margaret. You might have denied him, but what good is love if you are the only one who makes the sacrifices, who is willing to risk everything for that one person?" _

_"Peter was willing…"_

_"He was willing to have _you _leave your home for him," Nicholas interrupted. "What did he give up, Margaret? He expects you to leave everything that is dear to you for him, and yet he is allowed to sit back and enjoy the same luxuries that were present before your relationship. Peter could not even allow you to go home to say goodbye, Margaret."_

_"He…"_

_"Do not defend him," Nicholas disrupted. "You know it is true. Otherwise, you would look me in the face and tell me that, but you cannot. That was all you wanted, Margaret. The chance to say goodbye to us. He could not even grant you that. What kind of love is that, may I ask? That he was so blind to the other love you possess in your life… is that the kind of love you wish to spend forever with?"_

_"Peter does not know."_

_"Exactly," Nicholas tilted my head up, making sure his words were heard and registered in my head. "Peter Pan is a child. He will never know or understand, nor does he have any desire to do so. He is content with being who he is, living the life he does, and you of all people should know that."_

"You came," I breathed as we commenced through the forest, him dragging me about towards his refuge. "Peter… have you nothing to say on the matter?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know… how you _feel_."

"I couldn't leave you to Hook."

"Peter, I refuse to take another step until you explain yourself." I demanded, digging my feet into the ground and stopping us. "You didn't have to come back for me, but you did. People don't just go out of their way, swimming across the ocean onto a ship full of pirates for no apparent reason at all."

"Would you rather me leave you there?"

"Why must you be so unbelievably _difficult_!" I groaned. "I try so hard, you know, to get some sense out of your words but, try as I might, it is all nonsense. Why, Peter, I would expect this from a five-year-old. Might I get a sagacious statement from you?"

"I could not leave you to Hook," Peter shrugged, leaning against a tree. "He planned to hurt you. He wanted to… I couldn't let that happen to you."

"God forbid, Peter, I have tried my hardest with you." I put a hand to my forehead and dropped to ground. "But I do not see how anything can work. Near half the time we talk, we get nowhere, and when we do make progress, you have to go and act like such a child that we might as well be going nowhere."

"What else did you expect? It's not like I'm a grown-up. Not that I ever plan to be one."

"Must you be so mulish and obstinate?"

"Must you be so fickle?"

"See, we are getting nowhere." I sighed. "How I wish for a life I cannot have. Peter… you do things that… you make me feel like no one else. How I would love to spend forever with you, but not like this. I must grow-up."

"And you think that you are the only one that feels like that?" Peter stepped forward, his eyes bearing down on me hard as stone. "I can't fly anymore, Annie. I've forgotten the language of the fairies. Tinkerbell should have about figured it out by now, but eventually the Lost Boys shall know, and I will be ruined. I… I have forgotten. I'm forgetting everything. That is, everything…" he bowed his head to gather his breath before turning back towards me. "…except you."

In Peter's eyes came a new sentiment that had me topsy-turvy and completely uneasy. Suddenly his face seemed years older, and the boyish joy that was so apparent in his features were nothing but soft lines etched on his face. Even his whole being failed to glow with the magic that surrounded us and the enchantment of Neverland, and Peter Pan looked more foreign than a stranger from a far-off land.

My confusion only increased when he held out his hand, taking my hand within his and grinning in contentment. The overall sincerity of the gesture, as he brought my hand to his cheek and closed his eyes left me more breathless than a thousand passionate words of poetry could render.

Was this the same Peter who had sworn he would never grow up? Surely such an endearing sign of love could not come from a mere boy.

But he had came for me…

When I had needed him the most, required his presence to save me from a cruel fate, he had come. He had wrote that note…

With that thought churning in my sweet memory, and that note hidden in my nightgown, I joined Peter in a new world of rapture, closing my eyes and smiling with the most ease.

"You must come home with me, Peter." I said, still entranced in whatever it was the bound us together at this moment. "I left you once, and it near ruined me. I do not know if I can survive being separated from you again."

"I know I cannot live without you."

"Then you must come with me." I opened my eyes and saw his were still closed. "Leave Neverland, Peter."

"I will," Peter breathed, opening his eyes to find mine smiling at his. "I want to go back with you, Annie."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13.**

**"**_Countless times I have wondered what might have happened if I had stayed with Peter," Wendy rested against a tree, her hair blowing in the spring wind, as thin as a piece of thread. "Might he have grown to love me? Would he eventually have loved me and left Neverland? Even now such thoughts haunt me, and I know I shall die with such ideas still churning in my head like butter, fattening me up with a secret hope that perhaps Peter Pan is yet capable of loving."_

_"Everyone is capable of loving someone," I smiled slightly, looking at the woods in a way that must not be that much different than how Wendy had looked at it the previous year. "I am sure of it now."_

_"But that doesn't mean they will," Wendy let out a deep breath. "I want Peter to love someone. It matters not if it is me. I suppose at one moment in time I would have liked it to be me, but I know not how anyone could love a dying lady. I cannot promise him forever now, when my end is rapping upon the door, just waiting for me to answer."_

_"You must fight it, Wendy. Your time is not yet."_

_"But it draws nearer," Wendy rested a hand on her chest, as she often does nowadays. "I feel it, and everyday the feeling goes stronger. It does not hurt so much anymore either. I would think that I might be getting well, if it were not for the fact that I still am suffering from this chronic cough, throwing up blood every night."_

_"I wish I could take it away from you…" I hugged her now, and could feel her bones through her thick dress designed to keep her warm. _

_"It is not your burden to bear, nor is it one that I would want you to."_

_"But why do you need to die? You have not even grown-up quite yet, Wendy! It is simply not fair. There is so much of life you are to miss, if you die."_

_"I have had enough adventures to last me an eternity," Wendy grinned. "Peter has made sure of that."_

_"Don't leave me," I said. "I cannot bear having another person out of my life. I'll never see you again…"_

_"Of course you shall," Wendy laughed. "Annie, everyone must die. Time soon claims everyone. I am merely getting a head start in an adventure that you will join me on someday."_

_"What if I can't find you?"_

_"Come now, you are the wild one of us," in that instance, I saw the old Wendy full of stories and laughter come back. "It is only fair that I get a head start. You are bound to catch up to me in due time, for you take everything head on and unflinching."_

_"I wish I could take this thought on like that."_

_"You know, when I had decided to grow up, I had forgotten how Peter looked." Wendy informed me. "It was horrid enough not being able to fly and forgetting Neverland, but to forget the martyr of my fantasy… I had truly wanted to die."_

_"Don't say such things… it is so morbid."_

_"But that thought was soon diminished when I met you," Wendy went on. "In you, I saw the same fire that glowed in Peter's eyes. Iremember Peter's laugh and smile whenever you giggle and stare at me with as much enchantment when I told you stories. Slowly I began remembering… seeing the same audacity present in your being whenever you defied Jeanette or declared you would never grow up. It was as if I had met Peter Pan all over again."_

_"I am nothing like Peter Pan…"_

_"You might be surprised how similar you both are," Wendy nodded in agreement with herself. "I look at you and remember the boy who promised me forever. An eternity of joy and laughter and enough adventures to overflow your memory until it spills out before you in a pool of glee and hilarity."_

_"But forever is a dreadfully long time, even if it is spent with such glorious things." I replied to her somber eyes and suddenly understood. _

_"Indeed, it is." Wendy agreed. _

Jeanette welcomed my disheveled appearance in a rag of a nightgown and wilderness plastered about my body with horror. Clucking like a chicken about the dangers I had put myself into by wandering off into the woods as I had carelessly done, I only turned back at Peter and smiled. Completely lost in her worry over my well-being and the actions I had undergone in the night, Jeanette had forgotten of the boy who stood in the doorway, looking at her sister with as much love as a man.

"Peter," I called, stopping in my tracks and holding out a muddy hand, which he took gratefully. "Jeanette, this is Peter. He is…"

"You went off in the night with a _boy_!" Jeanette exclaimed. "If mother finds out… if the town finds out… why… I…you… what were you _thinking_!"

"Peter and I did not do anything disgraceful and uncalled for," I promised her. "In fact, I did not meet him until I was leaving the woods, and we had just happened to run into one another."

"Is that true?" Jeanette turned her attention to Peter, scrutinizing him with her eyes as her mouth formed a firm line. "Come now, surely you can talk."

"Annie wouldn't lie to you."

"Peter and I would like to get engaged," I told Jeanette. "We were both fools awhile back when we met, but now we realize that spending the rest of our lives together might not be such a dreadfully atrocious thing."

"Do you… _realize_ the commitment? The responsibility?"

"I wouldn't be informing you that we intend to get married if I didn't."

"And what do you have to say about this?"

"I want to spend forever with her." Peter answered simply.

"Margaret has much yet to learn," Jeanette stated. "She is not quite ready for marriage. There is much she does not know."

"I am willing to learn right along with her."

"She's never cooked a meal before."

"Nothing I like to eat needs to be cooked."

"You shall survive off of raw meat and uncooked eggs for the rest of your life?"

"How about candy, fruit, and nuts?" Peter suggested. "What use do we have of cooking?"

"I can see why Margaret would want to marry you," Jeanette remarked, laughing. "I know not how hard your marriage shall be with the two of you together, but at least I know you both will get along just fine."

"I am going to get married!" I squealed at such a notion. "I must tell mother. And Nicholas. And _everyone_. Just wait until Wendy…"

"Margaret… about Wendy…" Jeanette looked towards Peter, and saw that he stared at her with complete interest as to what she could possibly have to say about his Wendy Moira Angela Darling. "Last night, while you were gone… the doctor… he did all he could. But, there wasn't anything that he could do. She was bleeding to death… beyond anyone's help."

I did not allow her to finish. You did not have to be an adult to understand when someone was trying to evade the truth of the situation, trying to soften their words so as not to hurt or offend. But there was no way to lighten Jeanette's news…

Wendy had died.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14.**

_"Wendy Moira Angela Darling_!" _I called to the empty fields, wishing them to be filled with her stories and laughter. _

_"Might you holler a bit louder?" Michael remarked, joining me in overalls and sweat dripping off his forehead. _

_"Enjoy working with the men now?" I inquired with a smile._

_"Tis not so bad as I thought," Michael grinned proudly. "Nicholas said I am a born worker. And I'm getting mighty tall, Annie. Just yesterday I found that I was as tall as mother, and father says it shall not be long until I am taller than he. Better watch out. I'm going to be taller than you soon too."_

_"Not quite yet though," I patted his head. "I rather enjoy you the way you are."_

_"But if you enjoy me now, imagine how much _more _you shall once I am bigger!" Michael beamed with anticipation. _

_"Yes, me and half a dozen other girls." I teased. "You will be picking flowers daily soon enough."_

_"Already found mine," Michael boasted. "There is this girl, Lorraine McCormick, and she is really nice. She has brown hair that is curly and a pretty smile. Her eyes are awful wide though, but I like them. They remind me of a baby, all wide and curious like a cat."_

_"Growing up a tad bit now, are you?" I laughed. "You'll be married before me, Michael, my boy."_

_"Ah, I don't think so." Michael shook his head. "There has to be someone out there."_

_"No one that would have me…"_

_"I can't think of a fellow who might not want to be with you. The boy has to be silly like a boy and dumb as a sheep."_

_"Perhaps he is…"_

_"I still can't think of any fellow who would not want you," Michael scratched his head. "You sure the boy just isn't being a tease, and making you think he doesn't like you?"_

_"I am positive that he does not want me," my eyes drifted to the woods, casting as dark a shadow in the day as it does during the night. "He was not as willing as I to risk everything. There were more imperative aspects of his life, that being with me could not simply satisfy."_

_"He must be plain stupid."_

_"He just wasn't ready to grow up," I smiled at the thought. "But I am sure someday he shall. In time, even the greatest walls tumble and weaken into dust."_

_"Do you suppose so?"_

_"I do not need to. Time claims everything in due time. I already_ know _that."_

"Dead?" I rested my face in my hands, the silence seeming to engulf us both. "She's gone…I…I cannot believe it. I _don't_ want to believe it. I cannot admit she is dead… I won't."

Only silence responded, leaving my words handing in the air. I looked up to find Peter with his back to me… his head bent and his shoulders shaking from his sobs. Advancing towards him, she was so caught up in his boyish tears that he did not sense my presence.

"Wendy is no longer in pain, Peter." I told him, surprised I could so easily throw aside my own anguish to comfort his. "It is better this way. No more hurt. She can finally be in peace."

His cries softened at my intruding words, and he immediately became tense. Unsure if he had heard, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife, I was about to coo my words of reassurance when Peter stirred.

"Wendy was like a mother…" Peter struggled to talk, obvious he was fighting tears. "She was the mother of my Lost Boys and told me stories not even my Neverland compared to. I didn't deserve her."

"Whyever would you not?"

"I let her die," Peter proceeded to his trembling once more. "She called for me so many times, wishing to see me and Neverland. She'd plead to me in the darkness, knowing I was there. She could feel me just as much as I could feel her. But I never came for her. I never answered her back. I, who had promised her an eternity before, could now not even spare her a moment of time."

"Wendy got sick," I stated. "She did not die simply because you did not come for her."

"I could have taken her to Neverland!" Peter snapped. "Then she would never have to worry of growing up and getting sick and dying. She would not feel any pain. And she'd be with me… and Tink… and the Lost Boys… and we would… we would be a family."

"Oh Peter," I wrapped my arms around him, realizing this was no longer about Wendy and Peter, but rather of Peter and the fact he had no family since his parents had died. "You cannot replace a family. Nothing can compensate for a parents' love. Sure, you can attempt to create a sense of family and security, but nothing is the same as coming home to a family that would give anything for you, no matter how much you change or get sick or grow up."

"I cannot find Neverland," Peter wept on my shoulder. "There is no Neverland for me any more, Annie. There will be no flying for me, or swims with the mermaids, or nights dancing with the Indians or playing with my Lost Boys. No more battles with Hook. I have lost everything."

"You have me, Peter." I looked down at his tear-stained face, and wiped away his tears.

"Why would you want me? There is nothing I have to offer."

"All I need is in my arms right now," I replied. "I could spend forever like this perfectly content, thank you."

"Forever is such a long time…"

Peter's weak answer brought tears to my eyes. That statement which I had heard and said numerous times hit me right in the gut and brought such an overwhelming melancholy to the atmosphere it seemed like if ever I let go of Peter, it would consume me whole.

"I have nothing to offer you either, but I love you Peter. Truly I do. I would not say so if I didn't, for to love someone is to finally grow up and give yourself completely to that one person. And such a sacrifice I would not do for any ordinary person." I leaned forward, allowing my lips to brush his ears in a whisper as his had done to me once before. "Promise me forever, Peter Pan."

"I have already promised you forever, Margaret Anita Maurice." Peter looked at me, his eyes finally shining with the same rapture I had first known, now gleaming only with a new promise. "And never once did I intend to break it."

_AN: Not over yet, but very close to it. The story is drawing to its end. Hope you all enjoyed it while it lasted and that it was not that horrendous of a first fanfiction. Thank you again to all of the reviewers and readers. I love you guys moooochos. : _


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15.**

_"Do you suppose Wendy might get better?" I questioned mother later that evening, as I ate supper with her, in order to allow Jeanette and Nicholas the time all newly married couples needed alone. "That perhaps she shall not die?"_

_"I wish I could say Wendy might, my child, but I know that that is very unlikely." Mother stopped her eating, her warm smile seeming like the only source of illumination to lighten up the darkening atmosphere. _

_"If only I could completely believe this is all for the best," I sighed. "I would very much like to understand the divine plan of all this suffering and anguish, but I can only come up with explanations that I half belief and pray I find enough contentment in that."_

_"You must try to understand and trust that whatever happens is for the best interests of all."_

_"I _do _try so hard," I reassured. "I just know I am going to miss her so much. I miss her even now. You must be dreadfully disappointed in me for being so selfish."_

_"Never." Mother answered confidently. "Every being under the sun makes mistakes in their life. It is a matter of existence in this world."_

_"I hope someday I can be like you, Mother."_

_"I love you just as you are, my child."_

_"Although I cannot grasp why. It seems I get worse each day. I'm not even that interesting anymore. Just some boring, dull, humdrum girl."_

_"You are growing up __just fine_.

_"I only want to make you proud."_

_"And you have. What a lovely young lady you are growing up to be," Mother smiled and reached for my hand. "Only last year it might have taken an entire army to have you so dressed up, looking as if you had stepped straight out of heaven. Not so long ago Jeanette was at her end trying to turn you into a lady, and now you have grown into a very respectable young woman. I am fortunate to be blessed with two wonderful daughters that have grown up perfectly." _

_"And Matthew?" I returned her smile, relishing the savory confection of her words directed my way, and now desiring to hear her praise towards my brother. _

_"He is courting a friend of the Darling's, and I could not be happier." Mother took in a deep breath. "Soon he, too, shall be wed with children of his own. And perhaps, even sooner, you shall find someone up to your standards."_

_"I do not have any standards."_

_"I believe there is something my daughter is looking for," Mother looked at me to see if I would break. "You need not tell me of the matter, but I know. Every girl is looking for a certain someone in their life, and I believe you are waiting for that lad to come along. And how blissful your mother will be once I will be able to see all of my children married and living a superlative life in a house full of love." _

I have already found him,_ I thought. _And he turned me away.

_"But Wendy shall never go through such a life."_

_"No, she shall not." Mother's voice was solemn, and unflinching._

_"Why can she not though?" I asked. "What did she do to deserve such a life? Such an end?"_

_"The Lord works in mysterious ways that none of us can understand." Mother got up and hugged me. "Sometimes we shall come to face instances where none of us will be able to comprehend the enigmatic ways of life and why certain things must occur. I wish I could shelter my children from such sorrow and trepidation and pain, but I do believe that being exposed to this shall, in the end, benefit you. For it gives us all more of an opportunity to bless our health and realize how precious life truly is. And is that not what every mother wants, but to see her children grow up treasuring every moment of their life?" _

"I just need to get Teddy, and I shall be fine." Peter reassured me, as we walked through the woods, illuminated only by the few rays of sunshine that could escape the thick leaves above us.

"Are you sure you will be fine going back to Neverland?" I asked, my fear he would leave me for his Neverland still not fully extinguished.

"I once said I never planned to go somewhere that I wasn't sure I would come back from," Peter looked at me seriously. "I wouldn't go if I was not completely confident I would not come back to you, Annie."

"How do you think Tink will react?"

"I suppose she might be a _bit_ ruffled that I'm leaving," Peter's eyes glistened with the mischief I knew and loved. "But she will be more happy that Peter Pan has finally gathered enough courage to go and grow up."

"You suppose so?" I grinned, picturing the jealous fairy accepting that Peter was leaving her and Neverland behind. "Don't you think she might get lonely with just the Lost Boys?"

"Aww… well, who says she shall be alone for long?" Peter inquired. "Do you not think we will ever have kids to keep her company, Annie?"

"Children?" I blushed at the thought. "Why… I…"

"Ah, come now, my little ingénue." Peter put my face between his hands and kissed me. "It is not as if we are going to be having children very soon, but when the time comes, might we give them the opportunity to have the same adventures as us? It shan't be fair, you know, to deny our kids the same fun. And it would be just like you girls to go and ruin the fun for everyone else."

"Just like you to say that. _Of course_ I would let them have adventures like us... just... perhaps not _exactly_ the same adventures," I joked. "But I would not mind them having a few adventures of their own to share with their own children."

"You cannot even picture _us_ having children, yet you can picture our children having theirs?" Peter laughed. "I know not how both of us shall last as grown-ups, Annie, for I think we do a perfect job of being children to the end of our days. At this rate, our children will grow up before us both."

"We could spend hours talking of such matters, Peter, but you must go back now." I reminded him. "It is soon to be dark, and you already know how completely dreadfully afraid I am of the dark. The little bit of light in here is the only thing keeping me from allowing my fears to claim the best of me."

"I know you are stronger than that, even if you _are _a girl." Peter gave my hand a squeeze. "You know how to get back from here, right?"

"No one ever forgets their way home," I smiled. "I will be fine, I promise. Will you be able to find Neverland before I start to worry?"

"I suppose so," Peter said hesitantly at first but soon grew confidence at my smiling gaze. "But like a wise person once told me... you never forget your way home."

"Peter…" I trailed off when he entered the house with a downcast look to his face, that was stained with recently dried tears. "Whatever had you in such a manner?"

"I suspected it from the start," Peter collapsed with more tears. "I have forgotten Neverland."

"Be grateful my mother went to visit Jeanette and Nicholas!" I got up from where I sat sewing and helped him up. "If my mother had heard the crash and ruckus you had made, it might be quite hard for us to come up with an explanation."

"I will never see Tink again," Peter whimpered. "Or the Lost Boys. I shall never get Teddy back. I cannot even remember what Neverland looks like. I've forgotten everything, Annie."

"I suspected that might happen," I left his side to grab what I was sewing. "And so I went and sewed this for you while you were gone." I began to whisper. "You gave me your bit of Neverland once, and nowI shall give you mine."

In Peter's hands was a teddy bear. Not just any bear, mind you, for it was made out of the very scraps of the nightgown I had worn during my first adventure in Neverland. It's eyes were made out of two buttons that I remembered looked quite similar to that of Peter's Teddy, and for its nose, I used Wendy's kiss. But, perhaps, the most important bit of my creation (at least in my opinion) was that right where the bear's heart might be, I had sewn on a small, wrinkled piece of paper. A paper that I had saved and sewn on with as much promise and tenderness as the words expressed within it in a boyish scribble:

_Promise Me Forever_


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Evelyn Moira Pan was born on the eve of my anniversary when my adventure's with Peter Pan had begun three years ago. She had the same emerald green eyes and smile like her father's, which seemed to shine with mischief. Brown ringlets surrounded her head, the same hue as my own, yet her genes had seemed to prefer the traits of her father over my own.

Our home was built a few acres down from my mother's and Jeanette's, a quaint house that I could picture being filled with children and merry evenings full of laughter and stories and adventures. For, indeed the adventure Peter and I had decided to embark on together was the most exciting of any either one of us has ever undergone.

Evelyn's room was situated in the corner of the house on the second floor. There were two windows in this nursery, one which gave her a perfect view of her relatives' homes and the other that looked at the woods in the distance, promising her a world of fantasies and fun that eventually comes to claim every child at some point in their life.

Numerous times throughout the day, whenever we were not outside having as grand a time as if we were still children, Peter and I would take Evelyn upstairs to her room, where we would sit upon the window seat and stare at the woods, caught up in the memories of the past and a world in which we were no longer a part of. Our thoughts would only be dissipated at the sound of me, clearing my throat to begin one of my stories to share with our daughter, who was still far too young to comprehend or understand the adventures I spoke of, but who would stared at me with as much question and enthrallment as a one-year-old possibly could.

Upon entering Evelyn's room one evening, Peter and me had stopped in our tracks within the door. Evelyn's curtains flew about freely from the wind entering her room through an open window. Never have we opened a window in our home, for our house was placed in an area that remained cool throughout the year, and yet it was not the open window that caught us off guard, but what lay upon the windowsill.

"Teddy…" Peter breathed, stepping forward to grab his old childish token.

"How did it get…" I asked while walking to his side, only to stop my chatter at the sight that lay before us outside the window.

Outside, before us in the fields that lay in front of the woods, was a little over a dozen young boys. The darkness of the night cast no fear upon their youthful faces, for they grinned with as much jollity and waywardness as any lad might during the day. Hanging within the air was a glowing spark, which danced about over their heads, sprinkling upon them all a glittering rainfall of stars.

Setting a hand on Peter's shoulder, he put an arm around me as all of the boys let out a loud laugh before sprinting off and jumping into flight. Long after they were gone, their laughter rung in our ears and hovered over the fields like the bit of light that swayed back and forth still. Even after that light flew off in the same direction as the boys, the laughter lingered with us, only to be replaced by the laughter of our own daughter's.

**AN:**

So ends my first fanfiction. I hope you all enjoyed the story, and sorry I cut it short. Would've made it longer, but I limited myself to 15 chapters so I didn't go off on some weird tangent and butchered my intentions with the story. Thank you to all of the reviewers for reading my story and giving me your feedback. You make this experience and enjoyable one.

**Thanks!**

Remussweetie- Glad you liked Peter. Don't we all: D

SpiritWell- Enjoy your popcorn.

Remussweetie- Nice to know someone caught that little attempt of humor at the end.

Mariaah Blackrose- Glad you enjoyed it. Hope you go out and read some more fanfics, and that you did not find my "chappies" with Hook in them so horrid and unbelievably inaccurate.

JANE (For now)- you flatter me. : ) If you would like to talk as well, I can be contacted at qt1bug sbcglobal . net

Sarah- Your story is quite captivating. You need to keep it coming. Thanks for the props on the vocabulary. Hehehe... thimbles to you too.

Lunatik27- awww... Dom Dom. I love you so much. You are completely awesome, and it's great to know I have friends out there that will support me and actually put aside some time to read what I write. You introduced me to this fanfiction site, and you truly did make this experience as pleasantful of a time as humanly possible. You need to keep your story going, so I can review and write you long extensive things that will probably go on forever about Lord only knows what, since I am bound to go extremely off topic and all that jazz. Thank you so much for presenting me with this opportunity. Perhaps I shall make another one that is a bit longer, but first I need to figure out WHAT I would possibly be able to write about.


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